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Living By Yesterday’s Truths
From the series: Good News Then and Now
Text: Acts 21:21; Mark 2:22
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
October 3, 1999
Transcription of the spoken sermon
After a month's hiatus I pick up again a series I initiated in the month of August.
That was probably since many of you were not here for the first four messages
and then we left off the series in September, which means those who were here
have very little recollection of what we were attempting to accomplish. So, let me
run through briefly my purpose and what we have pointed to thus far.
The title is GOOD NEWS THEN AND NOW, by which I want to say that the
Gospel or the good news of God's revelation and grace that appeared in Jesus
Christ was Good News in its initial expression and as it has been in every age
since, so it is now Good News. But, in order for that to be true, the formulation of
that Good News has had to develop in ever-new expression. In order for the good
news to be understood as good news, the Church has had to find fresh
formulations in the ever-changing landscape of history's unfolding.
Christ Community is bringing the grace of God to new and fresh expression in an
intentional manner not happening in many places and we are doing it because we
believe we have in the Christian tradition a treasure which it is incumbent upon
us to translate into the idiom of our day so that it can address us and our
generation with its gracious, redeeming truth as it has generations for 2000
years.
We have a very special opportunity in November when Bishop John Shelby
Spong, Episcopal Bishop of New Jersey, will be with us for a weekend dealing
with his bold and prophetic claim that Christianity must change or die. Bishop
Spong is controversial; prophets always are. And his book, which I will begin to
discuss Wednesday evening, is a challenging address to the Christian Church, is
criticized widely and rejected by most. But we will hear him because what he is
calling for has been going on here for a long time.
We are on the threshold of Century 21, the third millennium, and we will
remember as we always do at the end of October the Reformation of the Church
in the 16th century. What better time to think seriously about the need for
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Richard A. Rhem
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reformation anew, for at the heart of that significant event in the Church in the
16th century was the conviction that the Church must be re-formed according to
the Word of God and always be being reformed. That word reformed has become
a name, a label, but in its emergence it was a verb, an action word that spoke of
the ongoing necessity of re-forming the Church.
In the 16th century, I suspect the need to ongoing reformation was affirmed in
light of the recognition that the Church becomes stagnant and even decadent in
its institutional life. The thrust of that call to ongoing reformation was thus the
need for inward renewal, the Church's forms and structures to be open to fresh
words of the Spirit and the renewal of spiritual life.
What was probably not in view was the need for reformation, reformulation of
the messages and content of the faith, a fresh translation of the Gospel because
the world would drastically change: the understanding of reality, the physical
universe and a transformation of human consciousness.
That, however, is what faced the Church as it moved into the modern age and the
last two centuries have been a period of great conflict within the Church as it has
tried to come to terms with a transformation in human consciousness and
thinking. My study of the 18th and 19th centuries has focused on Protestantism,
and particularly Protestant Liberalism, but it has been true of the Roman
Catholic Church, as well, that, as has been said, the story of Liberal Protestantism
can be seen as a series of salvage operations, attempts to show how one can still
believe in Jesus Christ and not violate the ideals of intellectual integrity.
The reason the battle has raged especially in the Protestant Church is that there
has not been the hierarchical, authoritarian structures in place to shut down
dissent. And the reason the battle has raged in the Liberal Protestant Church is
that the conservative evangelical Church still adheres to the orthodoxy of the 17th
century; that is, to this day churches in the conservative Protestant tradition
operate, as does the Roman Catholic Church, with a medieval mind-set and with
a faith understanding that has not faced up to and dealt with the questions which
the modern world has put to the orthodox understanding of Christian faith.
Let me review for a moment. This series began by pointing to the severe crisis
that arose in the early Apostolic Church because the expected imminent return of
Jesus Christ to judge the world and bring the present age to an end did not occur.
Rather, as we read in II Peter 3, the mockers who made sport of those early
believers asked, "Where is the day of his appearance? Everything seems to be
going on as it has since Creation."
Rather than the end of the age, history was continuing. Now, how were those,
who saw the last of the Apostles die and Jesus not coming, to understand what
the meaning of the Gospel was?
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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But, as we noted in the second sermon, eventually, after several centuries and
severe conflict, there was established the orthodox faith. Orthodox means right
opinion or right thinking. In the emergence of early Catholic tradition there was
achieved an agreed-upon doctrinal formulation, including the two natures of
Jesus Christ - truly God, truly human – and the doctrine of the Trinity. In the
meantime, the Church moved from persecuted minority to being the established
religion of the Empire.
But for our purposes today, let me simply say that the core content of the faith,
the orthodox faith, was established and maintained through the centuries to the
16th century and the Reformation, which broke the unity of the Western Church
and from which emerged Protestantism. In that renewal movement there was a
fresh return to scripture and a fresh understanding of the grace of God, but really
no break from the orthodox Christian faith. The structure of the Church was
shaken, but orthodoxy remained as did the authoritarian character of the Church.
The authoritarian center of the Roman Catholic Church was the teaching office of
the Church whose head was the Pope, while the fledgling Protestants claimed
their authority in the Bible. But in both cases, the Roman Catholic and Protestant
Churches claimed a divinely revealed faith with, in the case of Rome, infallible
dogma and, in the case of the Reformers, an infallible Bible, guaranteeing the
truth of revelation.
And then the world changed - changed radically, and the modern world was born.
The modern era in Western Civilization began with the scientific revolution in the
17th century. A mere listing of the names: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and
Newton, tell the story. Francis Bacon formulated the scientific method of
empirical investigation and John Locke's philosophical writing on human reason
set the course for the modern understanding of critical thinking. The 18th century
is the century of Enlightenment and the philosopher of the Enlightenment par
excellence was Immanuel Kant, who understood the Enlightenment as the
human movement toward emancipation from the "tutelage" of medieval times; it
was the human coming of age.
It was Friedrich Schleiermacher who, studying Kant, was convinced that, for
there to be a future for religion and for theology, including Christian theology, it
would be necessary to discover a new foundation on which to stand. No longer
would it suffice to cite Church dogma or scripture, for the authoritarian claim of
both had been undercut by the critical thinking that arose with the scientific
revolution.
In Friedrich Schleiermacher, Pioneer of Modern Theology, in the series, The
Making of Modern Theology, Keith W. Clements describes Schleiermacher's
context, The Enlightenment, thus:
Schleiermacher was born into the world of the Enlightenment ..., that
period of European thought and culture occupying roughly the whole of
the eighteenth century and, with the latter half of the preceding century,
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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comprising what is often called the "Age of Reason." As the name implies,
it was the period when the innate and universal endowments of human
thought were adjudged to be capable to providing men with whatever
knowledge of nature, morality, and religion was necessary for his welfare.
It marked the beginnings in Europe of the exile of orthodox Christian
theology towards the periphery of intellectual and social life, as both the
credibility of, and necessity for, supernaturally inspired doctrines were
challenged by rational, anti-dogmatic modes of thought. (P. 8f)
Schleiermacher proved to be the greatest Protestant theologian between Calvin
and Barth. He is called the Father of Modern Theology and he set the course for
Protestant Liberal theology for the next century, and still today he is not without
influence. In 1797 in a work entitled On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultural
Despisers, he claimed no external authority either in Church or scripture, but
claimed rather that religion was rooted in the human person in the feeling of
absolute dependence. With this understanding of the foundation of religion and,
in his case, Christian faith, Schleiermacher gave new expression to the faith
without claiming any external authority. He established a new ground of
authority in the human experience of dependence, developed a new method for
doing theology, and re-imagined the Christian faith, giving it fresh expression.
For Schleiermacher, the feeling of absolute dependence was the experience of
God, the gracious ground of all being.
But there was a second stage in the movement to modernity, that being the rise of
historical consciousness. A century after Schleiermacher gave his "speeches"
(1797), another German theologian-philosopher-historian, Ernst Troeltsch, came
to grips with the use of historical thinking and its implication for faith – religious
faith in general and Christian faith in particular.
In his History Sacred and Profane (1964), Alan Richardson describes this second
stage in the revolution to the modern:
We should never forget that it was one and the same movement of critical
inquiry which first culminated in the seventeenth-century scientific
achievement and later in the emergence of the fully developed historical
critical method of the nineteenth century. The critical faculty, once
awakened, could not rest satisfied with the successful exploration of the
realm of nature; it was bound to go on from there to the critical
investigation of the more intractable region of human nature, and when
the idea of development was fully understood, to seek to understand
scientifically how, in fact, man and his institutions have come to be what
they are. Since the nineteenth century it has been an axiom of Western
thinking that men and their institutions cannot be understood apart from
their history, or that to know what a thing is, it is necessary to give an
account of its past. This is part, at least, and a very important part, of the
meaning of the statement that we nowadays live in an historically-minded
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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age. The historical revolution in human thinking, which was accomplished
in the nineteenth century, is just as important as the scientific revolution
of two centuries earlier. But they are not two separate revolutions; they are
aspects of the one great transitional movement from medieval to the
modern way of looking at things.
That statement by Richardson points to the movement from the medieval to the
modern world and I cannot stress too emphatically what a revolution that
entailed.
Ernst Troeltsch believed that transition took place in the Enlightenment of the
late 17th and 18th centuries, not in the Reformation. The Reformers were premodern, still medieval in their way of thinking and their approach to the past.
The critical element in the modern period is the rise and dominance of critical
thinking, that is, the use of human reason to ask questions, to probe, to
investigate and not simply to take for granted what appears on the surface or
what some witness claims.
Critical thinking is simply the way we think and act in our everyday life; it is the
common sense view of the world and a common sense understanding of the past.
An important ingredient in historical consciousness is the scientific
understanding of reality, the understanding that nature works by natural laws
and regular processes. The historian now begins to assume that the past is to be
understood as one understands the present.
This is where the rub comes in: Christian doctrine is based on supernatural
intervention, miracles and events that contravene the regularity of nature. The
biblical story conceives of a three-story universe and God dipping into our history
from time to time. Now all of that supernatural framework was being called in
question.
In an excellent portrayal of the crisis of faith and history, Van A. Harvey, in his
work, The Historian and the Believer, begins thus:
Out of the mists of the nineteenth century, there arise again and again
spectral figures that refuse to be exorcised. This is particularly true of
Protestant theology. Schleiermacher, Strauss, Feuerbach, Kierkegaard,
Ritschl - all continue to stalk the present because they identified and
analyzed so profoundly issues that still bedevil us. Yet their presence is
embarrassing because the various solutions they proposed now seem so
patently dated and, in some cases, comic, that we feel justified in
dismissing their work or ignoring them entirely. But just at the most
important junctures of our own intellectual enterprises, we are disturbed
to discover that we are wrestling with the same old issues, that the same
questions have returned again in only a slightly different guise. With that
realization, the possibility suggests itself in the back of our minds that the
answers once proposed may not be so fantastic as we had so smugly
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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assumed. We find ourselves rethinking the thoughts of those whose
conclusions we look upon with disdain. This is always painful.
The writings of Ernst Troeltsch, particularly, evoke this discomfiture. The
issue with which he wrestled throughout the greater part of his life was the
significance of the historical-critical method for traditional Christian belief
and theology. He discerned that the development of this method
constituted one of the great advances in human thought; indeed, that it
presupposed a revolution in the consciousness of Western man. To be
sure, Western culture, in contrast to many others, has always been
characterized by a sense of history. But only in the nineteenth century did
this manifest itself in a sustained and critical attempt to recover the past
by means of the patient analysis of evidence and the insistence on the
impartiality and truthfulness of the historian. The distinctions between
history and nature, fact and myth; expressions like the growth of language
and the development of the state; the tendency to evaluate events in terms
of their origins; the awareness of the relativity of one's own norms of
thought and valuation; all these, Troeltsch saw, are but the by-products of
a change in thought so profound that our period deserves to be put
alongside those of previous cultural epochs as a unique type.
This revolution in consciousness found its formal expression in the
creation of a new science, history. Underlying this new science was an
almost Promethean will-to-truth. The aim of the historian, it was declared,
was to "tell what really happened." The magic noun was "fact," and the
honorific adjective was "scientific." Description, impartiality, and
objectivity were the ideals, and the rhetorical phrase and the value
judgment were looked upon with disdain. This drive to recover "the facts
as they really happened" has, with some justice, been criticized of late, but
it should not be forgotten how revolutionary this will-to-truth was or how
reactionary the forces were that needed to be overcome. Only when the
question "What really happened?" was consistently and radically posed,
did it become clear how much of what was previously accepted as fact was,
in truth, fiction; how so many long-trusted witnesses were actually
credulous spinners of tales and legends. Indeed, it can be argued, all
reliable historiography rests on some such distinction as "whether or not
something actually happened; whether it happened in the way it is told or
in some other way ...," as August Wilhelm Schlegel wrote in his review of
the Grimm brothers' Old German Songs, and it is difficult to quarrel with
him and still account for the concepts of myth, legend, and fairy tale that
constitute so much of the mental furniture of our age.
This will-to-truth became attached to a method, and the presuppositions
of that method, Troeltsch concluded, were basically incompatible with
traditional Christian faith, based as it ultimately is on a supernaturalistic
metaphysics. This incompatibility was most clearly seen, he thought, in the
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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realm of Biblical criticism. The problem was not, as so many theologians
then believed, that the Biblical critics emerged from their libraries with
results disturbing to believers, but that the method itself, which led to
those results, was based on assumptions quite irreconcilable with
traditional belief. If the theologian regards the Scriptures as
supernaturally inspired, the historian must assume that the Bible is
intelligible only in terms of its historical context and is subject to the same
principles of interpretation and criticism that are applied to other ancient
literature. If the theologian believes that the events of the Bible are the
results of the supernatural intervention of God, the historian regards such
an explanation as a hindrance to true historical understanding. If the
theologian believes that the events upon which Christendom rests are
unique, the historian assumes that those events, like all events, are
analogous to those in the present and that it is only on this assumption
that statements about them can be assessed at all. If the theologian
believes on faith that certain events occurred, the historian regards all
historical claims as having only a greater or lesser degree of probability,
and he regards the attachment of faith to these claims as a corruption of
historical judgment.
Troeltsch poured scorn on those of his contemporaries who attacked the
historical method as a manifestation of unbelief while employing
something like it to vindicate the truth of their own views. The method, he
claimed, did not grow from an abstract theory, nor could one ignore the
cumulative significance of its extraordinary results. "Whoever lends it a
finger must give it a hand." Nor could the critical method be regarded as a
neutral thing. It could not be appropriated by the church with only a bit of
patchwork here and there on the seamless garment of belief. "Once the
historical method is applied to Biblical science and church history," he
wrote, "it is a leaven that alters everything and, finally, bursts apart the
entire structure of theological methods employed until the present."
Christianity must, therefore, build its religious thought upon it or else be
consigned to the limbo of those countless other antiquated forms of
religious belief that were unable to make their own accommodation to the
Zeitgeist.
Actually, Troeltsch believed the church had no real option, because it is
impossible even to think without the new assumptions. They have already
penetrated to the deepest levels of Western man's consciousness. They are
a part of the furniture of his mind. Therefore, one must be willing to see
the matter through to its final consequences, to let burn what must burn,
hoping that a new synthesis might emerge on the other side, a synthesis all
the stronger for having been purged by the fire. Troeltsch himself tried to
do this and, if his efforts now appear dated and relative to his own time,
that only seems, ironically enough, to vindicate his thesis; namely, that the
expressions of the human spirit - its language, art, philosophy, and
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Richard A. Rhem
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religion -are intelligible only in terms of their time, that man is immersed
in history like a fish in water, that man's failure to transcend history only
reveals that he is a creature whose thought is something less than
absolute.
The application of the principles of historical criticism to the Bible in the
nineteenth century was a traumatic event in the history of Protestantism.
It is true, as Emanuel Hirsch has pointed out, that Biblical criticism had
been practiced in a modest way since the beginnings of the Reformation.
Luther himself was a shrewd critic. But it was only in the third decade of
the nineteenth century that it was possible to subject the Scriptures to
rigorous analysis without dogmatic presuppositions and limitations. The
attempt to do so naturally aroused the hostility of theologians and the
ecclesiastical authorities. Did not the entire enterprise rest on unbelieving
presuppositions? (Pp. 3-6)
What developed fully as historical consciousness was already anticipated in
Schleiermacher. Troeltsch was a century later and during that 18th century there
was great ferment as theologians struggled to preserve a safe place for faith in
Jesus Christ amidst the rising tide of scepticism about the biblical witness.
Historical critical study of the scripture was now being engaged in with great
vigor. In 1835 David Friedrich Strauss published his Life of Jesus, which was a
bombshell. His treatment of the scriptural source was revolutionary in that he
treated the Bible as any other literary work, asking questions about who wrote,
why, to whom, etc., and he totally undercut the supernatural character of
scripture.
There were sharp reactions and condemnation of his work, but the battle was on
and there was excess on the side of the new critics and defensiveness and fearful
over-reaction on the part of conservative scholars.
By the end of the 19th century, Ernst Troeltsch was the leading dogmatician in
Europe and he took up the struggle, similar to Schleiermacher a hundred years
earlier, but now in a new climate of opinion, one marked by historical thinking.
He wrote,
So I began like Schleiermacher by establishing the peculiar independence
of religion by means of the psychology of religion, by showing that every
attempt to derive religion from other basic activities (of the human
consciousness) has failed. Only I did this on the basis of a psychology
which is different from Schleiermacher's and in the front against different
opponents - not moralists and rationalists, but modern positivists and
those who see religion as an illusion. (Zth K, VIII, p. 28)
Troeltsch recognized the need, as had Schleiermacher, to find a way to continue
to believe and have a genuine religious experience in terms of present human
understanding and experience. He wanted to be both Christian and intellectually
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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honest and to this purpose he gave his life. Near the end of his life he wrote of his
deep and vivid realisation of the clash between historical reflection and the
determination of standards of truth and value.
“The problem thus arising presented itself to me at a very early age ... I
was inspired by ... the interest in reaching a vital and effective religious
position, which could alone furnish my life with a center of reference for
all practical questions and could alone give meaning and purpose to
reflection upon the things of this world. This need of mine led me to
theology and philosophy, which I devoured with an equally passionate
interest. I soon discovered, however, that the historical studies, which had
so largely formed me, and the theology and philosophy in which I was now
immersed, stood in sharp opposition, indeed even in conflict, with one
another. I was confronted upon the one hand, with the perpetual flux of
the historian's data, and the distrustful attitude of the historical critic
towards conventional traditions, the real events of the past being, in his
view, discoverable only as a reward of ceaseless toil, and then only with
approximate accuracy. And, upon the other hand, I perceived the impulse
in men towards a definite practical standpoint - the eagerness of the
trusting soul to receive the divine revelation and to obey the divine
commands. It was largely out of this conflict, which was no hypothetical
one, but a fact of my own practical experience, that my entire theoretical
standpoint took its rise. (Christian Thought. London, 1923, pp. 4-6)
There you have the driving force for the large undertaking which would
characterize Troeltsch's life passion and work. His was an authentic struggle to be
intellectually honest, attuned to the best thinking of his time, and to find a place
to stand that would enable a vital religious experience and provide a foundation
for values.
Troeltsch was convinced that theology must always seek to relate itself positively
to the rational knowledge of the day - not uncritically, but in dialogue and
critique. In an introduction to Ernst Troeltsch -Writings on Theology and
Religion, Robert Morgan writes,
The modern intellectual situation determines the form to be taken by
theology. This is characterized by the intellectual revolution effected by
modern science and critical history. Troetlsch's strenuous efforts to
understand this modern intellectual and cultural situation led him into
sustained work in the history of ideas, with special reference to the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ... Troeltsch considered that the
intellectual and cultural revolution of the eighteenth century requires that
theology submit itself to a corresponding revolution in method. He was to
characterize this as the transition from dogmatic to historical method.
What this meant was a break with the old supernaturalism which modern critical
history had rendered impossible and a purely historical approach to the Bible and
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Christian tradition,m combined with a rational defense of the metaphysical basis
of religion. (P. 7) I cannot do more within the confines of this sermon to detail the
tremendous undertaking of the task in which Troeltsch engaged himself; but I
hope to have given at least some sense of crisis of Christian faith as he
understood it brought about by the emergence of human historical
consciousness.
As I reflect on the learning, the passion and the dedication of a scholar like Ernst
Troeltsch, whose motivation was to find a solid basis for the understanding of
religious experience, its legitimacy and the critical role it plays in human life and
community, I marvel that the conservative evangelical Protestant Church and the
Roman Catholic Church have continued to steel themselves against the historical
method which Troeltsch proposed and against the insights which the method has
brought to light - the understanding of religion in general and the Christian
religion in particular.
I have been immersed in the rise of modern thought and theological development
of the 18th and 19th centuries over the past three months and I am beginning to
get some sense of how we got to where we are. I have set before you two Christian
theologians, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Ernst Troeltsch, both brilliant
scholars and passionate believers, one writing 200 years ago and the other 100
years ago. Both were convinced the Church must find a basis for its faith and an
understanding and expression of its faith in terms of the best intellectual
understanding of its time. They have not been without impact, but primarily in
the Liberal Protestant tradition.
In the Roman Catholic tradition those thinkers who sought to apply the historical
method to dogma and scripture were silenced and in several instances removed
from leadership and even excommunicated.
In the conservative Protestant tradition, which is my background and the
background of many of you, Schleiermacher and Troeltsch might as well never
have lived. Conservative Protestantism, and that includes not just the
fundamentalist Church and Pentecostal churches, but much of the mainline
Church as well, still resist what both Schleiermacher and Troeltsch believed to be
necessary 200 and 100 years ago, respectively.
When I consider this, I understand why there has been a mass exodus of
intelligent people from the Church and why the Church has little standing in the
centers of learning in the world. I understand, too, why religious scholarship has
moved out of Church-related institutions and seminaries and is finding place in
secular institutions of the state and, even there, one is not always totally free to
pursue disinterested scholarship.
Perhaps I should not be surprised. Jesus pleaded for the recognition that new
wine demands new wineskins. That forms, structures, language and conceptuality
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need to be open to change and transformation. The religious-political institutions
had him killed.
Paul had a vision - a new insight that revolutionizes everything - the grace of God
available to Jew and Gentile through faith in Jesus Christ – and arriving in
Jerusalem he was warned by James that the Jewish Jesus people were disturbed
by reports from the mission field that he was advocating dropping the Mosaic
tradition. His life was in danger and finally, tried in Rome, he died a martyr.
There must be something about the human creature that resists the new and
especially in the area of religion. I am learning that it is not really an intellectual
understanding of religious truth that is desired, but a gut level experience, a
stirring of the emotions, a confirmation of absolute truths received uncritically
even though that is not how we live our lives generally or what we expect from
our doctors when our health fails.
And so, I see congregations growing through praise music and worship as
entertainment. I see Pentecostalism growing through the provision of deeply
emotional experience. And I realize that there is a slim minority who value and
seek religious experience which is congruent with thinking and critical
understanding.
But I believe that slim minority is a critical piece of the puzzle for, historically,
prior to the modern period, the Church was the womb of the arts and theology
was the Queen of the Sciences. I wonder if we have not sold our birthright for a
mess of pottage because we have failed to engage in the hard work of holding
together faith and reason. That, as I see it, is the challenge before this
community.
References:
Keith W. Clements. Friedrich Schleiermacher, Pioneer of Modern Theology, Vol.
I of The Making of Modern Theology. Fortress Press, 1987.
Van A. Harvey. The Historian and the Believer: The Morality of Historical
Knowledge and Christian Belief. University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Robert Morgan. Ernst Troeltsch, Writings on Theology and Religion.
Westminster John Knox Press, 1990.
Alan Richardson. History Sacred and Profane. SCM Press, First Edition, 1964.
Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923). Christian Thought: Its History and Application.
Hyperion Press, 1979.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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Event
Pentecost XX
Series
Good News Then and Now
Scripture Text
Acts 21:21, Mark 2:22
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Keith Clements, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Pioneer of Modern Theology, Vol. I, 1987
Van A. Harvey, The Historian and the Believer, 1996
Robert Morgan, Ernst Troeltsch, Writings on Theology and Religion, 1999
Alan Richardson, History Sacred and Profane, 1964
Ernst Troeltsch, Christian Thought, 1979
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KII-01_RA-0-19991003
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1999-10-03
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Living By Yesterday's Truths
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 3, 1999 entitled "Living By Yesterday's Truths", as part of the series "Good News Then and Now", on the occasion of Pentecost XX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 21:21, Mark 2:22.
History of Religion
Re-imagining the Faith
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/200cee898d3f9ceacd7fc34f0976025f.pdf
060b4d5af548a0f092ba358f54b9d434
PDF Text
Text
When God Fails Our Expectations
From the Series: Good News Then and Now
Text: Isaiah 2:4; Matthew 24:34; II Peter 3:4
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
August 8, 1999
Transcription of the spoken sermon
I inaugurate a new series of messages today that will take us to the end of October
and Reformation Sunday, the day we remember the major event in Christian
history when the Protestant tradition emerged out of the Roman Catholic
tradition in the 16th century. That Protestant tradition in its Reformed expression
is my background and the tradition in which this congregation was founded in
1870. It is the tradition of a majority of this congregation still, I believe, although
I suspect over the last decade or more we have received in membership more
folks from the Roman Catholic tradition than from any other.
It seems to me that the idea of reformation is an important idea to keep before us
on the threshold of the 21st century and the Third Millennium, and I am hoping
that this Reformation celebration will be our most significant ever because we
will have traced the Christian faith development through 2000 years. On the
heels of Reformation, we will have the Jewish scholar on Christian origins, AmyJill Levine, here for the weekend, speaking here on Sunday, November 7, and
then Bishop John Shelby Spong on November 12-14, speaking on "Why
Christianity Must Change or Die." That should prepare us for an informed and
intelligent movement into the new millennium.
In order to prepare the congregation for this experience, I will in this series go
back not to the 16th century, but to the first and second centuries of the Common
Era and trace the development of the Christian faith story over 2000 years. My
first choice for series title was, "Christian Faith and the Climate of Opinion: A
Two Millennia Retrospective." The Team cried, "No way! No one will come!"
Then I came up with what I thought was really fascinating and even a bit poetic:
"When Symbols Break and Myths Dissolve." The verdict - "Scary."
So, finally, bowing to pressure of those who hope to keep this place alive, I
entitled the series, "Good News Then and Now," meaning thereby what I’ve
meant all along –
© Grand Valley State University
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Richard A. Rhem
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that the Gospel - the good news - has continued to be proclaimed in every
succeeding age in changing expression reflecting the historical context
into which it is spoken.
My purpose must be obvious; I believe we must find a fresh translation of the
good news for the day in which we are living. We all know this happened in the
16th century when the Western Roman Catholic Church was rent and
Protestantism emerged, but I hope to enable you to see that, although that was
perhaps the most dramatic and certainly the shift that has most impacted us in
Western Christendom, it was but one instance of what has been happening for
2000 years, although not always with such major institutional repercussions.
This is important for this congregation to realize because we are endeavoring to
find the medium and the message that will bring good news to our community
and our world at the turn of the millennium.
The Gospel means good news - good - that is, encouraging, hopeful, life
enhancing. News - that means updated, fresh, for now. Thus, Good News then in the first and fourth and 12th and 16th centuries and all points in between, Good
News now: How do we bring a helpful, hopeful, encouraging word to our
moment on the timeline of history?
It is my sense that if we are going to feel the freedom to re-imagine the faith and
do it with passion and seriousness, we must realize that we stand in a line of
those who have wrestled with the faith, have come into times that called for fresh
insight on the emerging human experience, on the unfolding drama we call
history. As the human situation changes, faith formulations must address new
circumstances and new human experiences. I have hammered away at this until
you perhaps tire of hearing it. But, I am now embarking on a rather ambitious
undertaking: to lay the foundation for the perspectives we share here.
I suppose one might say this is an apology for my ministry and for the posture of
this congregation, providing historical justification for daring boldly to revision
and re-imagine the faith.
One more word - my purpose is not to provide an academic lecture series;
this is worship and the sermon should have practical, spiritual import for the life
of the congregation. In the significant shifts through 2000 years, behind the
shifts have always been existential concern - faith matters that matter for living.
Thus, today my sermon is "When God Fails Our Expectations."
I think that expresses the experience of the early Church as the Apostolic
generation was dying off. The whole Jesus movement was posited on the
expectation of the imminent return of Jesus Christ from heaven. They held to the
conviction that Jesus who was crucified was risen from the dead, ascended into
heaven and was soon to return to judge the living and the dead.
© Grand Valley State University
�When God Fails Expectations
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
Imminence was the operative word - Jesus would come a second time soon.
The New Testament references are too numerous to cite. Let me simply remind
you of the final words of the Revelation of Jesus to John just prior to the final
benediction: "Surely I am coming soon."
Paul in I Corinthians 15:51, "We will not all die, but we will all be changed." In
I Thessalonians 4:13f, "... then we who are alive, who are left until the coming of
the Lord ..."
And, of course, from the Gospel reading,"Truly I tell you, this generation will not
pass away until all these things have taken place ..." Matthew 24:34.
Let me say here that some of the Jesus scholars today attribute these apocalyptic
passages to the early Jesus community - not to Jesus himself. That is currently a
rigorous debate. But no matter; my point is that this was the expectation of the
Jesus movement in the wake of his life and death.
And Jesus did not return. That was the first major crisis of faith of the Jesus
movement - or as it came to be known - the Christian Church. It takes little
thought or reflection to realize how traumatic was the delay of the parousia, as
this fact is spoken of. Parousia is a Greek term for coming, advent. The "delay"
points to the early sense that surely he is coming, coming soon, but obviously not
as soon as we expected. There has been a delay.
Now, if this was at the heart and center of the early Church’s hope and
expectation, waiting for the glorious appearance of the Lord from glory, then
non-appearance, at first spoken of as delay, created some urgent questions about loved ones who died in the meantime, for example, would they miss out?
But, for the most part, faith held on. But, when the whole Apostolic generation
died, which was to be the terminal generation, the crisis deepened.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that those who died would be included with
those who are alive at the Lord’s coming, but eventually they all died. Now, widescale defection began and the faith of many was put on the defensive. This is the
situation we find in the Second Letter of Peter which was not written by the
Apostle Peter, but is best dated after 90 CE and perhaps as late as about 150 CE,
that is, 70 to 120 years after the death of Jesus.
That a crisis exists we can read from II Peter 3:3ff, "... in the last days scoffers will
come. They will ask mockingly, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever
since our ancestors died all things continue as they were from the beginning of
creation!’" In other words, the believers were taunted with the fact that it was
"business as usual" in the world. Nothing happened. What, then, of the claims of
the risen, ascended Lord coming in glory and power to judge the world?
© Grand Valley State University
�When God Fails Expectations
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
It is obvious that the delay of the Lord’s appearing must have created an
extremely difficult situation for the early Christian movement. That movement
was composed of two distinct groups - the Jewish Christian community located
largely in Palestine and the Gentile Christian community, the result of Paul’s
mission. These two groups had sharp differences. New Testament study sees
Luke’s writing in Acts as an attempt to show how these two were reconciled, but
there was a sharp division. Yet, both groups held essentially to the apocalyptic
hope that was rooted in Jewish apocalypticism that was anticipating the end of
the age, and both saw the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as the beginning of
the End, which would be consummated with his return from heaven to judge the
living and the dead.
The imminent return of Jesus did not happen and that significant fact
necessitated a major transformation of Christian understanding.
It was Albert Schweitzer who called biblical scholarship and theological inquiry to
the recognition of the fact that there occurred in the immediate past Apostolic
period a transformation of understanding of the Gospel. The transformation
moved the early Christian movement to what is called early Catholicism. That, in
fact, was a move not only to create a new understanding of the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus, but also toward the creation of the Christian Church as an
institution, a regularizing of the faith, mode of worship (liturgy, sacrament)
and structure of the Church. This was the beginning of doctrinal formulation
and the formulation of orthodoxy.
It was not a simple process. There were strenuous battles fought over the right
interpretation of the Gospel and it did not happen smoothly or at all places at the
same time. There were now groups and views designated as heretical and after a
long, tortuous process there emerged what was designated the regula Fidei, the
Order of the Faith. In the process, Jewish Christianity was reduced to a sect and
eventually faded from the scene and St. Paul’s theological understanding was
transformed into the faith of the early Catholic Church.
It is not possible for me in the sermon format to document this or set forth the
conflicting path by which it was accomplished. Perhaps, however, you can sense
what was happening if I describe the whole movement as the eschatology of the
Apostolic faith. This must be plain to see, for the problem was the imminent
return of Jesus which did not happen.
Eschatology is the teaching about the last things, the end of history. It derives
from Eschaton, a Greek word meaning “End.” In sum, the post-Apostolic
movement had to create a new scenario - a scenario which took into account
ongoing history and the living of life in the world which obviously did not pass
away.
© Grand Valley State University
�When God Fails Expectations
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
This was the first and major shift in understanding made imperative for the
Christian movement by the delay of the parousia. In his Formation of Christian
Dogma, Martin Werner, a Swiss historian of dogma, taking his cue from
Schweitzer and others, claims this was the womb out of which all Christian
dogmatics must be understood.
So what?
Remember, my purpose in this series, to demonstrate that the point in history at
which we have arrived as the third millennium dawns calls us to revision and reimagine the faith, in continuity with the tradition but in fresh expression which
takes account of the new world which is our historical context, and that need not
cause fear or anxiety because this kind of development has been going on from
the very beginning.
The second letter of Peter was a plea not to yield to the inevitable. Those who
realized that Jesus’ return was delayed were not all scoffers, although I am sure
some were. There were also those who took up the challenge to try to make sense
of the Gospel in new historical circumstances. The author of our text was an early
fundamentalist, pleading yesterday’s answers to today’s questions.
I find it fascinating that that writer still has voices crying the same thing. Two
thousand years later there are those claiming the days are counting down. In
Grand Rapids, as reported in the Press yesterday, the TV evangelist John Hagee
signed his most recent book. He was pictured with a considerable article. The
new title is From Daniel to Doomsday: The Countdown Has Begun, and Hagee
claims he is speaking the Gospel and telling people what the Bible says about the
"terminal generation." That is remarkable. That is precisely what St. Paul thought
he was doing. It was precisely the fact that the Apostolic generation was not the
terminal generation that created the crisis that necessitated the major revisioning
of the faith that led to the development of early Catholic tradition.
This week I viewed a catalogue from Christian Book Distributors. On the back
cover is advertised the novel series Left Behind, by Tim La Haye and Jerry B.
Jenkins. Six volumes out. Millions of copies sold. You can get all six at the
bookstore for $134.92 or discounted from CBD for $88.50. The same catalogue
has a centerfold advertising seven titles on Y2K, titles such as The Road to
Armagedon and Jesus’ Final Warning. And, of course, there are t-shirts
emblazoned with such slogans as "Don’t Be Left Behind," and "Trib Force."
The lack of taste is one thing. The economic exploitation is another. But, the
abysmal ignorance of such guilt-imputing, fear-inciting abuse of the Bible is
simply incredible. My pastoral concern rises from the damage such misuse of the
Bible and ignorance of the development of theological understanding creates. The
biblical story tells of the God Who has created all, sustains all, and embraces all full of grace with the purpose of love. It is Good News. It was Good News then,
© Grand Valley State University
�When God Fails Expectations
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
when Paul was overwhelmed by the grace of God and the hope that appeared in
Jesus. It is Good News now, recognizing Paul’s misconstruing of history, but
recognizing, as well, his marvelous sense of being in Christ, in grace.
If we can see through the limitations of Paul’s knowledge of the created order,
beyond his limited understanding of world history, human development and the
ongoing evolutionary unfolding of reality, we can still hear his witness to the God
Who in Jesus drew near, was embodied, and Who invites us to trust, to rest, and
to continue the 2000-year process of updating the Good News.
It was not easy to realize that Jesus was not imminently returning. It was a curse.
Many lost their grip, gave up, sought another way. That is part of being human. It
felt like God failed their expectations.
That happens to us, too, when we use God as a magic genie to protect us or secure
for us some favor, when we make God too small, a "fix it" person keeping us from
harm’s way, free from the tragedy and suffering that is part of our human lot. But
that is to use God, and such a God sometimes will fail our expectations - our
prayers will be to no avail.
The problem, of course, is not God, but our expectations. God calls us to
maturity, to responsibility, to the way of Jesus, to the life of compassion and
community and, in all of that, God is Emmanuel - God with us, today and
always.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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c804448cc56f91f5ee82871da8a8c83c
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
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Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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Sound
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Pentecost XII
Series
Good News Then and Now
Scripture Text
Isaiah 2:4, Matthew 24:34, II Peter 3:4
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
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KII-01_RA-0-19990808
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1999-08-08
Title
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When God Fails Our Expectations
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Sound
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on August 8, 1999 entitled "When God Fails Our Expectations", as part of the series "Good News Then and Now", on the occasion of Pentecost XII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 2:4, Matthew 24:34, II Peter 3:4.
History of Church
Re-imagining the Faith
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/befcd6a9717ce1988cae2762beb203e5.pdf
de1954b1bb8b583be2337cb95c306751
PDF Text
Text
Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension
From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time
Text: Genesis 3:10; Psalm 130:1, 4; Psalm 132:1; Philippians 3:12
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
November 9, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
About three weeks ago, our house began to tremble and a check out the window
revealed that, down the driveway next door just south of us, lumbered a great big
Cat, some kind of heavy equipment. It had a steel arm that seemed two stories
high that came, finally, to an iron jaw. The next morning the engine roared, the
Cat positioned itself in front of the home that had sat next to ours as long as we
had been there. The arm went up, the jaw came down on the flat-roofed dwelling
and punctured through it, here, there, in another place – through that roof like it
was nothing but tar paper. And then the arm raised up and the jaw moved over
and down to the side and simply nudged the wall in and another wall in and
another wall in, and before one knew it, that which had been a home in which to
dwell was lying in fractured rubble on the basement floor. And then those jaws
reached down and hungrily grasped all of the shattered fragments, lifting them
up and depositing them in a dump truck that was waiting. Once all of the rubble
was out of that floor, once again the arm rose up and moved over to the side of
that poured concrete wall and just went, "Poof, poof, poof," and then crrrunched
those slabs of concrete until again the jaws could come down and pick up the
pieces and put them also in the truck and, within a day’s time, where a dwelling
had been there was now simply a vacant lot, a sandbox.
Demolition. Deconstruction. Dramatic. Changing the landscape. Not just for the
fun of it, but in order that in that place there might rise a new dwelling, to the end
that my tax appraisal will go up.
Deconstruction, demolition is a part of the human experience in order that there
might be reconstruction, new construction. An old and inadequate dwelling was
demolished in order that a new house might arise more adequate to the moment,
to the time, to the person. And, as I experienced that event, I saw an analogy of
my ministry, a ministry of deconstruction, perhaps even demolition – I hope not
with the brutality of that iron Cat. Nonetheless, for the same purpose.
The analogy breaks down at one point. In the case of the house, there was total
demolition, total clearing of the space before the new construction could begin. In
© Grand Valley State University
�Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
the case of my teaching and preaching ministry, it is necessary, obviously, that
there be deconstruction and, simultaneously, construction, that there be
dismantling and, at the same time, mantling anew, lest we be left for a time with
no place to dwell. But, the purpose is the same, and the deconstruction and the
dismantling that must always take place in terms of our faith dwelling is not in
order to demolish, but to clear the space for something new and more adequate
to our ongoing knowledge and human experience.
It has always been that way in the faith journey of the people of God. Jesus stood
in the line of the Hebrew prophets. Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew. His
devotion, his worship, his communion with God was within the parameters of his
Jewish experience. But he reached into that structured religious establishment
and rearranged some rooms and created some new spaces, challenging the
conventional wisdom that had moved God afar off. He brought God near, the
unbrokered presence of the God Who was accessible to all. And, of course, he
paid for it with his life.
It was the same throughout 2000 years of church history, but perhaps nowhere
more dramatically than in the 16th century. We are the children of the
Reformation, that disruptive event in the life of the church that tragically tore
asunder the body of Christ, and yet necessarily dismantled and deconstructed an
institution that had become overlain with forms and structures that blocked and
hindered and obstructed the flow of the grace of God rather than aiding that flow.
It must have been difficult for people in the 16th century, at the time itself. I think,
for example, of those who came to the altar for the bread and the cup, believing
that when the bell sounded at the altar and the priest invoked the spirit of God
there was a miracle that occurred, the transubstantiation of the bread and the
wine into body and blood, literally. Martin Luther had a hard time moving away
from that. His fine distinction was that the bread remains bread and the wine
remains wine, but the body is above and around and under the physical element
that doesn’t change. Similarly with the cup, so that over against the
transubstantiation of the Roman church, the Lutheran tradition had
consubstantiation, con, that prefix that means "with." The body was with the
bread; the blood was with the cup. I suppose there were those who were troubled
when John Calvin suggested that it is neither transubstantiation nor
consubstantiation, but rather that Christ is present spiritually when one receives
bread and cup with faith.
I suppose there were those who brought their children to the baptismal font and
got the baptism executed and breathed a sigh of relief because the Catholic
tradition taught that the child was born with original sin and that in the
baptismal act, the grace of God removed the original sin and gave the child a
fresh possibility, a new start, a start for the first time, as it were. I suppose there
were those who were troubled when they brought their child to the baptismal font
in Geneva, only to learn that there was no automatic grace attached to the act, for
© Grand Valley State University
�Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
the sacramentarian conception of things had been altered to where it was now the
prayer and the faith that engaged the promise and brought the grace, but without
that automatic guarantee.
Throughout the history of the church, as human knowledge has expanded and
human experience has grown, and reflection on the faith has continued, there has
been that ongoing deconstruction, not in order to leave us naked and bare, but in
order to clothe us anew with that which is more adequate, which is in accord with
the broader spectrum of our human experience, so that one need not check one’s
mind at the door and come in for mindless ritual or devotion but, rather, that one
with mind and heart according well might offer one’s whole being to God.
In these fall weeks we are re-imagining God, not simply because new is better or
old is no longer valid in every case, but in order that we might meet God again for
the first time, in order that we might have a fresh experience of the living God, a
taste of new wine, that we might experience the presence of God, the
illumination, the light of God on our total experience in a whole new way in order
that it might be deeper and richer, in order that it might engage our whole being
and our life of worship and our life generally might flow out of a center within us
that is whole, in order that there might be cohesiveness in our life.
Living before the face of God - that’s the purpose. That’s the end of our thinking
and our rethinking. Our thinking and our rethinking are vitally important, but
are always a step removed from what really matters. What really matters is the
communion of the soul with God. What really matters is that we might live with
that peace of God within us, that we might live with a kind of confidence and
strength and serenity in the conscious awareness of the presence of God in whom
we live and move and have our being.
Sometimes it’s necessary to deconstruct some of our images and some of our
systems and doctrines, because they become blocks. They no longer fit with that
which we experience otherwise. They no longer illumine our lives, but they
become, if they can be continued, just rote exercises that we do out of custom or
superstition, rather than that which we do thoughtfully, with awareness, with
attentiveness. Finally, all that we do here together is only for one purpose - that
we might live before the face of God in a relationship that is personal.
Let us be clear about that. What we are engaged in here week after week is
sometimes a matter of deconstructing, but never as an end in itself, but always to
aid and abet that living, personal relationship with God which is at the heart and
center of our religion. The function of religion is the hatching of the heart; it is
the opening of the self to the sense of the sacred, to the holy, to God. And in order
to make that accessible, available, in order to create the environment, the setting
in which that may happen, we stammer and stumble and we re-imagine,
sometimes involving dismantling, but always in order to be mantled afresh with a
sense of the gracious, living God.
© Grand Valley State University
�Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
The images we carry of God, as we have noted, are terribly important. That
Genesis story pictures the Garden of Eden, that blissful place in which the human
persons are placed, protected, innocent, and unaware. The image of God in that
old Hebrew myth which is so profound in portraying our human experience, our
relationship with God, conveys the image of a God Who comes into the garden
from outside, Whose very presence brings with it fear and guilt to the human
person who has engaged in that inevitable human act of wondering,
experimenting.
The church, I think, has missed the point of that garden scene, particularly
through the interpretation of St. Paul. The experience of experimentation, that
transgression, the coloring outside of the lines is called "the Fall." As a matter of
fact, there is part of the liturgy of the church that recognizes that there was
something more going on there. It is called The Paradox of the Fortunate Fall,
because obviously that which evolved in the human being following that
transgression was gain along with the pain. There was that inquisitiveness that
brought knowledge and awareness and fear and guilt. There is in that story a
reflection of that which is endemic to the human person, a sense of fear and guilt,
a sense of treading over boundaries. Dwelling east of Eden now involves
alienation and estrangement. Yet, who could say that they should have stayed
within Eden in that innocent unawareness?
In the Hebrew tradition, the images of God were churned as they wrestled with
the concrete experience of their life in the presence of this Creator God Who
could only be conceived of as sovereign lord and king in a hierarchical society
that was structured from the top down. Yet, there was also a sense of the grace of
God. The Psalmist, in Psalm 130, speaks out of the depths. Have you ever been in
the depths? Have you ever had to cry out of the depths?
Out of the depths I cry to you, O God. O God, if you should mark iniquity,
who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be
feared.
And the forgiveness creates hope and newness.
Here we have one model, one experience, but the experience of a personal
relationship with God, the sense that there is a grace that embraces even the one
who in the depths, in the crisis, feels estranged, alienated.
The next Psalm is a poem of serenity out of creaturely humility, the human
person being what the human person ought to be, not lifting up the eyes, not
raising the sights too high, not haughty of spirit, and consequently, in that
acceptance of the human condition, experiencing the presence of God as a child
nursing at the mother’s breast. "O God, my soul is serene." Serenity through the
awareness of God Who is Creator and I a creature.
© Grand Valley State University
�Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
But, there are also people like Paul whose lives are going down the road one way
and who have an experience, cataclysmic and dramatic that turns them around in
their tracks and, whatever that vision of Jesus involved, it issued in the
transformation of Paul’s life. Was it for him also a moment of awareness? Did he
suddenly see everything in a moment? What he saw clearly was that religious
structures are transcended in that kind of experience. His wrath was raised when
religious people came in after him, into the communities that he had formed, like
the community in Philippi, with "religion." He calls them dogs; "Beware of the
dogs, the mutilators of the flesh."
Paul has been pictured in a thousand sermons as a classic case of conversion,
obviously from Judaism to Christianity. It’s just not so. Paul in the 3rd chapter of
Philippians denigrates not at all his Jewish experience. It was a very positive
experience. It was a very adequate experience. It had the potential for mediating
to Paul the God of Israel. But that mystical encounter which he had, relativized it,
until he came to see, not Christianity, but the possibility, the experience of the
reality of the communion of the soul with God. He was born a Jew and he died a
Jew. He would never have sensed himself to be anything else, but I think he
would have said, "It’s not so important that I’m a Jew anymore," and I don’t think
he had the foggiest idea that he would be the founder of Christianity, which he
was. Jesus didn’t found Christianity. Paul did. But he would have said the form
doesn’t matter, because religion is not a ritual form or a doctrinal system.
The experience of God transcends religious ritual and doctrine. All is transcended
in the communion of the soul with God. Once the soul has been indelibly marked,
when it has been seared with the seal of the presence of God, the reality of God,
then all religious form and structure is relativized. Then use it or put it aside. But
know that, in a moment of awareness, the presence, the embrace, the
undergirding, the overshadowing of God – of the sacred and the holy that
permeates the whole of reality – sustains, succors and nurtures and nourishes us.
So, where are you? That was God’s question to that first couple cowering in the
bushes. "Where are you?"
"Hiding."
"Why are you hiding?"
"Well, we decided to be human."
God knows our frame. God remembers that we are human. God made us that
way. God didn’t create this whole vast cosmos and all the myriad millions of
humankind in order with a blast of God’s breath to damn it all. God is the One in
whom we live and move and have our being, who says, "Where are you?"
Why don’t you just stop for a moment, for just for a moment. You could become
aware, if you could just hear you are loved. If you could just break through as
© Grand Valley State University
�Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
Paul broke through and finally see that, if God is for us, who could be against us?
That there is nothing in life or death or principalities or powers or things present
or things to come, nothing in the heights or the depths, nothing in all creation
that could ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. If for just a
moment you could become aware, it would transform us forever and enable us to
rest from our restlessness and be reborn with an energy that, with the Apostle
Paul, we would say, "I press on with joy, seeking to grasp that which has grasped
me."
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/002f0445ebe2a49ab830148f2a3a450a.mp3
6279c408b092c1d3ef29f955d24915f8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
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Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
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Event
Pentecost XXV
Series
Meeting God Again for the First Time
Scripture Text
Genesis 3:10, Psalm 130:1, 4, Psalm 132:1, Phil. 3:12
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19971109
Date
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1997-11-09
Title
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Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Sound
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on November 9, 1997 entitled "Living Before the Face of God: The Personal Dimension", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XXV, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 3:10, Psalm 130:1, 4, Psalm 132:1, Phil. 3:12.
Faith Journey
Grace
History of Church
Re-imagining the Faith
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cc3d3e57a03c845674654a2b99ff1361.pdf
29005dc923ec671e693eb5e7c6449d58
PDF Text
Text
Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
From the series: Meeting God Again For the First Time
Scripture: Acts 5:27-42; Matthew 5:17-21
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
September 21, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
It was May 21, 1922 - a Sunday morning. In the First Presbyterian Church of New
York City, Harry Emerson Fosdick preached what is probably the most famous
sermon ever preached in this country. I borrow his title and texts this morning.
Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
That was the question Fosdick posed. It was a gracious appeal to the
fundamentalist party in American Protestantism to give room within the
fellowship of the Christian church for those of more liberal views. Fosdick was
gentle, in no way derogating those who held to the old doctrinal positions of
Christian faith. He acknowledged the fruitfulness of sincere Christian lives that
had long lived by ancient formulations of faith. But he challenged the illiberal and
intolerant spirit that marked the fundamentalist parties in the respective
denominations that were attempting to cast out those who were seeking to rethink Christian faith in light of the explosion of new knowledge and to
understand the burst of new knowledge in terms of their Christian faith.
Fosdick based his plea for tolerance and inclusiveness on the passages read this
morning. The 1920's were not the first years of religious conflict. We could point
to many such crisis times, but surely the ministry of Jesus brought about a
serious crisis for the established religion of Judaism. The Gospels record the
conflict of Jesus with the main religious parties of the Jews. And as is the case
time and again, Jesus was not about introducing a new religion, but about the
renewal of the tradition within which he was born, nurtured and carried out his
ministry.
Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come
not to abolish but to fulfill.
But, that was not how Jesus was received. Rather, he was seen as a troubler of
Israel, a threat to the established religious institution and a danger to the good
order of society.
© Grand Valley State University
�Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Jesus was crucified by Roman power that wanted no popular uprising in the
province, but certainly with the consent and to the relief of the religio-political
leaders of the Temple cult.
Such use of violent force settles nothing, however; rather, it spurred his followers,
convinced he was not dead but living, to take up the message and further the
movement. Thus, the authorities were forced to go to round two. They now
attempted forcibly to silence the disciples. That is the setting of Luke’s account in
Acts 5. After the apostles’ imprisonment, the authorities called them in and
charged them to cease and desist in their preaching, but they refused, driving the
authorities to the brink of violence again. Then it was that a voice of wisdom and
reason was raised.
Gamaliel, a respected Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin, addressed the
body. He reminded them of two recent popular uprisings that came to nothing
with the death of their leaders and, he suggested, the counsel of wisdom would be
to set the apostles free - have nothing to do with them, he said, for if this Jesus
movement was of human origin, it would fail, and if it was of God, nothing they
could do would overthrow it. Indeed, they might then be found fighting God.
Good advice.
Wise counsel.
And Gamaliel prevailed that day.
Gamaliel is Fosdick’s model in his appeal to the fundamentalists of the 1920's. He
raised the question I have often raised: What might have happened if Gamaliel’s
advice had been heeded, not only that day, but from that point on, and the Jesus
movement might have been a flowering of Jewish faith, renewal and rediscovery
of the spiritual depth of Israel’s faith?
But, such was not to be the case. Nor was it the case in the 16th century when the
Roman Church was rent asunder and the Protestant movement developed its own
identity over against Rome.
Fosdick raised the question, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" and his answer
was "No" because intolerance never brings a solution to conflict situations.
Intolerance solves nothing. Rather, pleads Fosdick, the church must be
"intellectually hospitable, tolerant, liberty-loving, open-minded and fair."
Fosdick’s appeal was reprinted in three Christian journals and John D.
Rockefeller, Jr. paid for the publication of 130,000 copies of the sermon for
distribution across the nation. He appealed for liberals and conservatives to
assume a posture of courtesy, kindliness, humility and fairness, but the appeal
had the opposite affect. Conservative response was swift and strong. The
Presbytery of Philadelphia, led by Clarence McCartney, requested the General
© Grand Valley State University
�Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
Assembly to "direct the Presbytery of New York to take such action as will require
the preaching and teaching in the First Presbyterian Church of New York to
conform to the system of doctrine taught in the Confession of Faith."
The issue was joined; there was no turning back. For the next dozen General
Assemblies there was serious conflict. This was the time during which G.
Gresham Machos left Princeton Seminary and founded Westminster Seminary
and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
As to Fosdick, he was First Presbyterian’s preacher by special arrangement, being
himself a Baptist. Rather than taking him on, the General Assembly voted to
require him to enter the ranks of Presbyterian clergy, thinking he would have had
to pass their theological requirements. The liberal element in the Presbyterian
Church pleaded with him to do so, but he declined, stating,
I simply could not make the sort of even formal assent required of all
candidates for your denomination’s ministry. I would choke - for, rightly
or wrongly, I should feel as if I were lying like a rogue.
Fosdick was out of a pulpit, but not for long. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. asked him to
come to the Baptist Church in New York City that he attended. He is said to have
refused, saying he would be concerned about being the pastor of the wealthiest
man in the country. Rockefeller replied, "How do you think I will feel having
Harry Emerson Fosdick as my pastor?" With that, Fosdick agreed and eventually
Rockefeller built the great Riverside Church in New York City as the showcase for
Fosdick’s remarkable gift of preaching.
What was going on in the early decades of this century that came to a head in the
ministry of Fosdick? In the sermon he preached on that May Sunday morning in
1922, Fosdick spoke of the new knowledge. Now the knowledge was not new in
the sense of a sudden arrival of knowledge in 1922. Rather, there had been a
growing body of knowledge over the past decades that simply had to be
assimilated to the biblical worldview if there was to be any possibility of
intellectual integrity. Fosdick declared,
A great mass of new knowledge has come into man’s possession: new
knowledge about the physical universe, its origin, its forces, its laws; new
knowledge about human history and in particular about the ways in which
the ancient peoples used to think in matters of religion and the methods by
which they … explained their spiritual experiences; and new knowledge,
also, about other religions and the strangely similar ways in which men’s
faiths and religious practices have developed everywhere. Now, there are
multitudes of reverent Christians who have been unable to keep this new
knowledge in one compartment of their minds and the Christian faith in
another. They have been sure that all truth comes from the one God and is
his revelation. Not, therefore, from irreverence or caprice or destructive
zeal, but for the sake of intellectual and spiritual integrity, that they might
© Grand Valley State University
�Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
really love the Lord their God not only with their heart and soul and
strength, but with all their mind, they have been trying to see this new
knowledge in terms of the Christian faith and to see the Christian faith in
terms of this new knowledge.
This, of course, is the imperative for every generation and also the source of the
tension that is always present in faith and of the conflict that has always marked
institutional religion.
For a time in the Presbyterian Church it seemed as though the Fundamentalists
had won. Fosdick was out and the fundamentals of doctrine were reaffirmed. But,
they did not win, for in the long run the repression of knowledge and honest
inquiry can never prevail.
It is my contention that, although the mainline Protestant denominations
eventually yielded to the more liberal perspective, there is much of the church
that has not yet brought its faith into engagement with modern knowledge.
This I believe is the fascinating challenge and opportunity that we face at Christ
Community. We have a new freedom to interpret the Christian faith for our day.
We have been at this for a long time; or, at least I have, and you have been
supportive of that. But, now as a people, we have been galvanized through the
ordeal through which we have passed. This is one of those rare moments when a
whole community is thinking, asking questions, wrestling with matters of faith.
Thus it is that we embark today on a new series of sermons under the theme,
Meeting God Again for the First Time.
Some of you have read Marcus Borg’s book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First
Time, where he relates how he moved from childhood faith to unfaith and then
with a fresh spiritual experience returned to vital Christian faith. It is my hope
that we as a community might come to a fresh experience of the living God Who
is big enough to encompass our questions, our best knowledge, and our deep
yearning for communion with the Ultimate Mystery in Whom we live and move
and have our being.
Next Sunday Dr. Duncan Littlefair will preach for us. For decades in Grand
Rapids at the Fountain Street Church he was known as the Voice of the Liberal, as
a radical, even as one who did not believe in God. But I have gotten to know him
well, to feel his passion and sense the deep spirituality of his being. He is deeply
concerned for the future of the Christian tradition. I want you to meet him, to
experience him as he will challenge us not to stop now, simply treading water, but
to continue to wrestle with how to bring the Christian message to our society in
the present context.
The following Sunday during the Perspectives hour, Dr. Littlefair will be joined
by Dr. Lester DeKoster, former Librarian at Calvin College and Editor of The
© Grand Valley State University
�Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
Banner, the Christian Reformed Church publication, a stout Calvinist whose
conservative credentials are impeccable. These two men, longtime friends and
friendly adversaries, will dialogue on the future of religion.
In all of this I am inviting and challenging you to think deeply, to ponder the faith
that has shaped us and to struggle with me to find the manner in which the faith
tradition must be translated for today and tomorrow.
Bishop Krister Stendahl who preached for us last year was the moderator at the
recent Jewish/Christian dialogue. On the way from the airport, he mentioned a
phrase that has stuck with me since our first encounter in 1991 when he was
David Hartman’s dialogue partner. He said, "Tradition is an instrument of
continuity and change." I was struck by that when I first heard it in ‘91 and I have
used the phrase frequently. That tradition provides continuity with the past - that
was always obvious to me. But that the faith tradition is, as well, an instrument
for change, I had never realized.
I suspect my too narrow sense of tradition’s function stemmed from my nurture
and training - always focused on relating to and being faithful to the past
formulation of the faith that had come to us from our forbears. In all my
theological education, the stress was on explanation of the faith as given and the
defense of that faith as received. I cannot remember ever being challenged to
think about the reformulation and revision of the faith tradition for fresh
statement in the present, in a context dramatically different from the context in
which the faith was initially formulated.
In a word, I had no sense of a living tradition, a growing, developing faith
understanding that not only puts me in continuity with the past, but illumines
present experience and continues to light up the path into the future. Thus,
breakthroughs in knowledge impact faith’s understanding and faith creates a
framework within which to assimilate new knowledge.
One is open to embrace the world in all its wonder and new experience because
one is rooted, one has a place to stand. But, one is not swept away on a flood of
new learning, but examines new thought and experience critically with some
distance and detachment because one has a trusted tradition within which to
think, to reflect, to take in the new.
This is the critical issue before the Christian church today. As I stated above,
much of the evangelical Protestant church, to say nothing of the Roman Catholic
Church, has not yet come to terms with modern knowledge. The resurgence of
fundamentalist religious mentality in our day is a flight from honest engagement
with what we know about the world, the human story, history and scientific
probing of our universe. We find the conservative churches that have not been
traditionally fundamentalist in spirit turning to worship as entertainment and
emotionalism in mass movements. And all of this, I am convinced, is an escape
© Grand Valley State University
�Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
from wrestling with the impact of knowledge on faith’s understanding and the
critique of modern knowledge and life from faith’s perspective.
No one need be faulted for not engaging in this serious and taxing endeavor. No
one need be condemned who is seeking simply a bit of comfort and security. But
someone needs to find a way to the experience of God, the way of Jesus and the
presence of the Spirit in the midst of this world, here and now.
There will always be those who will continue to parrot yesterday’s answers to
today’s questions and with intolerant spirit seek to set outside the community of
faith others who are searching for today’s expression of faith in light of today.
But, the fundamentalists shall not win because a fearful, rigid and intolerant
spirit convinced of its own rectitude is a denial of everything Jesus incarnated.
If we dare pursue the path upon which we have embarked, we must be clear-eyed
about the fact that we will be swimming against the tide of current cultural
opinion as well as choosing the road less traveled by the churches as the agents of
institutional Christianity.
But, we will be set free to recognize the crisis of the church at large in the present,
to see the denial in which it is living and to be free of fear that drives it, whether
conscious or unconscious.
Further, we will provide a place for people who value intellectual integrity and
whose heart cannot find rest where their minds cannot follow. We will provide a
place for those whose hearts yearn for God and whose spirits thirst for spiritual
depth, but who cannot abide the narrow mind and intolerant spirit that marks so
much institutional religion.
And we will revel with delight in the Presence of the Mystery that is God amidst
the ambiguity of the human condition, having few answers but able with abandon
to raise our questions and, in community, experience the presence of the Spirit
and know the compassion of Jesus, trusting that finally all is Grace and all will be
well.
And again and again we will meet God as if for the first time.
Reference:
Harry Emerson Fosdick, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?: Defending Liberal
Protestantism in the 1920s,” historymatters.gmu.edu
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4880597d0cfd2cdf624d36fe1f5cda59.mp3
e0cd2cb775cef742148c021960e6a513
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost XVIII
Series
Meeting God Again for the First Time
Scripture Text
Acts 5:38-39, Matthew 5:17-21
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
Harry Emerson Fosdick, Shall the Fundamentalists Win?: Defending Liberal Protestantism in the 1920s, 1921
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-19970921
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1997-09-21
Title
A name given to the resource
Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 21, 1997 entitled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?", as part of the series "Meeting God Again for the First Time", on the occasion of Pentecost XVIII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 5:38-39, Matthew 5:17-21.
Community of Faith
Fundamentalism
Inclusive
Re-imagining the Faith
Worldview
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Divine Improvisation – Human Wonder
From the series: Cosmic Symphony
Scripture: Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 9; John 1:1-14
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
June 22, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Sometimes when I reflect on what I try to communicate to you by way of writing
or preaching, I question myself. I realize that I am on a fascinating quest that
never quits. Always, always I am trying to understand, understand the Mystery of
God, the mystery of the human being, and then it strikes me that that is really the
same quest. Do I not try to understand God, the nature of Reality, because I am
trying to understand myself, my human nature, the meaning of human being?
Sometimes I question myself for dragging you along on my quest. I cannot help
myself - these questions stalk my every waking moment and obtrude from my
unconscious at times during sleep. But, certainly not everyone is dogged with that
drivenness to search the mysteries of life.
When I doubt myself in the execution of my preaching/teaching ministry, I hear
voices from the congregation say, "We really only want to know that God loves us
and that in the end all will be well."
And then I am struck by the realization that that is precisely why I carry on my
quest - am driven by the need to probe, to discover. It is because, more than
anything else, I want to be able to say with honesty and conviction, God loves
you; all will be well. For that reason, I keep thinking and letting you in on my own
reflections.
We have inherited a faith tradition - the biblical story, Israel and Jesus, 2000
years of interpretive tradition - the Christian theological tradition. But all of it,
the biblical story and the interpretive tradition, was shaped in terms of a
conception of the world-creation and of God that we know is other than what is
being discovered in our day. Our knowledge of the cosmos is exploding, it is
awesome; it places the most brilliant scientists before Mystery. That knowledge,
gained through the sciences, is always tentative, open-ended, constantly being
confirmed or corrected, and that knowledge will not provide for us either proof or
disproof of God and the mode of God's engagement with cosmic reality. But, what
we learn from the sciences will make evident the conceptions of God and God's
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Richard A. Rhem
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working derived from pre-scientific ages that no longer speak to us, because they
were based on an understanding of the world and its origin that has been
rejected.
The conception of the cosmic reality, which our best knowledge provides, does
not give a proof either of God's existence or non-existence, but it is the context of
understanding within which we must finally understand our experience of God.
Images of God and God's working which do not accord with our knowledge of
reality will not be convincing or adequate.
Therefore, faith's understanding needs new language, new concepts, and new
analogies. That is the task that drives me and, to the extent that you continue to
tolerate me and even encourage me, I believe it is the gift we can bring to our
world as a faith community.
A biblical scholar, John Knox, wrote something that struck me when first I read it
and continues to keep me at the difficult and risky task in which I am engaged.
He wrote,
For our hearts cannot finally find true what our minds find false. If they
could, we should be hopelessly divided and any firm grasp of reality would
be impossible. What we mean by "the heart" in this connection is not
something alien or counter to the mind, but is the mind itself quickened
and extended. The wisdom the heart has found, if it be wisdom and not
fantasy, is the same wisdom the mind all the while has been feeling after, if
haply it might find it. It is a wisdom which, far from bypassing the
understanding, enters through the doors of it, fills and stretches the space
of it, and only then breaks through and soars above it.
The Humanity and Divinity of Christ, p. 1
Perhaps another way of saying this is that the "heart" cannot find rest in a story
or a symbol which our reason shows to be out of sync with our experience and
knowledge of reality - not in accord with the reality we know from observation
and rational reflection, or, again, we will not "rest" in that which our common
sense rejects.
Given the fact that our knowledge of the physical universe, of the human being, of
global human society, and of historical development in a global perspective has
revolutionized our understanding of ourselves and the reality of which we are a
part, our faith formulations must be translated into new language and
conceptuality if they would continue to be compelling, convincing, meaningful
and awe-inspiring into the Third Millennium.
If you are of my generation, you can perhaps live and die with inherited stories,
symbols, and faith understanding. However, it is not just for ourselves, but for
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our children and grandchildren that we must re-think the faith in order that they,
too, might live in the assurance that God loves them and that all will be well.
Finding new language, a new translation of biblical faith does not mean that the
tradition in which we have been nurtured did not point us to and connect us with
reality, with God, that it did not provide a meaningful framework for
understanding our human experience. It did that for the Christian community for
all these centuries and still does so for millions. But the truth, the Reality to
which our faith formulations point, is beyond those formulations and
increasingly in the last three centuries those formulations have been shown to be
inadequate; they no longer image reality as we are coming to know it through
observation and scientific investigation.
In this situation a serious error has been committed by both the Academy and the
Church: both tend to identify the symbols, the interpretive story, with the Reality
itself. Thus as Science images a cosmos that is contradictory to the biblical story
and symbol, Science tends toward atheism or the denial of God, while Religion
grows defensive and engages in a futile effort to disprove the findings of Science.
Both efforts are wrong because both mistake the story/symbol for the reality
itself. It is not the Reality – In this case, God - that is disproved, but simply the
inadequacy of the interpretive story, the symbolic imaging, that no longer
connects what we know from scientific investigation with what we experience of a
transcendent reality as human beings.
How many years ago was it that the Mackinaw Bridge was built? I vaguely
remember that, soon after it was opened, a car pulling a mobile home was
overturned by a gust of wind while crossing the bridge. The occupants of the car
said they feared the bridge was collapsing. But, the bridge was just fine. The
storm overturned car and trailer on the bridge. But one can identify with the
initial fear of those folks - thinking bridge and themselves were plunging into the
sea.
So it is with our theological theories and explanations. New information shows
them up as picturing the world or God or the human person in a manner not in
accord with the reality discovered. But, that does not touch the reality of world or
God or person. It simply calls for re-thinking, revising our conceptions, re-telling
the old, old story.
In the re-telling, the tradition will be mined for stories and nuances forgotten or
overlooked. Certain language heavy with sacred association will be retained but
given new meaning in a new framework. The dismantling of old conceptuality is
not to destroy, to leave barren, but to find a more adequate expression that will
be resonant with a fresh authenticity.
Such an enterprise has always been going on and must ever continue. A
reactionary defensiveness on the part of the Church always proves futile and
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dangerous as religious leaders have not often trusted the people with full
knowledge of the best information available, thinking that, by shielding them
from advancing human knowledge, they will preserve them in the faith.
But to do so is dishonest and a disservice. James Fowler, the religious educator
who defined the stages of faith development points out that often the Church
itself is responsible for arrested spiritual development, keeping people stuck at
the adolescent stage rather than calling people to maturity in Christ. To keep the
people of God from maturity leaves them vulnerable to a David Koresh, a Jim
Jones, to militant, violent fundamentalism.
And if we do not continually re-think our faith formulations in light of ongoing
knowledge available to us, when we are confronted with such knowledge, there is
often anger, the rage of having one's core beliefs disrupted and perhaps rage and
rejection of the institution that misled, that failed to pass on an honest faith
interpretation in light of the best knowledge available.
Let me add one more thought: Our traditional story has hints that point to the
universality of God's grace, but we must honestly acknowledge that, in the wake
of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, that early movement reflected in the New
Testament documents shaped a religious tradition - Christianity - which has for
the most part been exclusivistic. Once again parts of the Church will declare even
now - Salvation by grace, but through Jesus Christ alone.
But today in our global society, where we have come to know other traditions and
the people who worship God in those traditions, we simply must recognize that
tribal conceptions of God and narrow religious traditions can no longer be pitted
against each other. Not only does a rigid exclusivism no longer make sense, it is
downright dangerous. Our world is too small, too inter-connected, too
interdependent to allow the volatility of religion to fuel tribal, ethnic and national
conflict.
If in the foregoing I give the rationale for my struggle to re-tell the story, I must
move on now and attempt to speak of God in new imagery. I have been
endeavoring to do that in these weeks since Pentecost, finding myself, as I've
said, in an accidental series.
In light of the fascinating story of the origin and evolution of our universe, how
can we speak of God? On Trinity Sunday I confessed my surprise at finding
myself imaging God in the threeness of the Trinity symbol:
God is a Mystery beyond our comprehension, yet present to the Cosmos,
which flows out of that infinite well of creativity as Energy, Matter, Time,
and Space. All that is given existence by the Breath or Spirit of God.
I borrowed an analogy from St. Augustine who imaged God as an infinite ocean,
limitless, beyond knowing, and this whole universe, the whole creation as a
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sponge submerged in that infinite ocean. The sponge has limits, is finite, though
vast and there is not a molecule or atom of the sponge that is not saturated with
the ocean's watery reality. So, argues Augustine, God is infinite, beyond knowing
- more than the whole of Reality, yet present totally to, in and with the cosmos,
giving it existence and life.
Interestingly, that image from the Fourth Century vividly expresses our best
sense of the relationship of God to the cosmos - more than (Transcendent); God
is more than the creation, yet present in (Immanent); God is intimately present
in all that is.
We have then gone on to claim that the nature of the Mystery, the Mystery's
meaning, intention, and purpose is defined in a Face - Jesus is the human face of
God; in his face we see the light of the knowledge of God; God gains definition as
the Word becomes flesh.
From Jesus' life and teaching we discover that devotion to God is the doing of
compassion - creating a humane community, where justice is done, compassion
is practiced, the hungry are fed, the oppressed set free, the homeless given
shelter. That is the end of religion, the purpose for joining in a faith community.
In that community we worship, being lifted beyond ourselves through liturgy,
symbol, music and artistic expression, recite the story, nurture, and join in the
action of compassion, following the way of Jesus.
Can we do that honestly, with authenticity in light of what we have learned of this
awesome cosmic drama of which we are a part and the experience of God in the
biblical faith tradition, as well as that attested to in other religious traditions?
I do believe we can. Not only do I believe we can re-imagine God in light of all we
know and experience of our world, but I believe the wonder of that Mystery is
more than our forbears could have dreamed of.
Let me suggest an image of God and God's relation to the cosmos and to
humankind that I find fascinating and profound. I take it from the British
Biologist/Theologian, Arthur Peacocke, whom I quote in the back pages of your
liturgy from his Theology for a Scientific Age. The image of God is that of a
composer, indeed, of a jazz improvisor.
The chapter title where this image appears is "God's Interaction With the World,"
and the subsection is "Models of God's Activity as Creator." Peacocke points out
two classic ways of speaking of the activity of divine creation - the model of
"making," and the model of "emanation."
The maker model speaks of God as the craftsman, the mechanic. This is the most
common biblical manner of speaking. However, the emanation model also finds
expression - God from God's own being goes out to be actively involved in giving
and sustaining the being of all that is.
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Richard A. Rhem
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The "Maker" model lends itself to the idea of God's transcendence - God beyond
the world. The "Emanation" model points to God's immanence in Creation God's presence in and with all that exists.
In light of our knowledge of cosmic reality from the sciences and our reflection on
God in the biblical tradition, Peacocke suggests the model of artistic creation as
best imaging God's creative action and interaction with the world. It is in such a
context that he writes the section that appears in the pages of your liturgy. I find
the image of Jazz Improvisor fascinating and exciting - highly illuminating of the
manner in which God might interact with the cosmic reality.
I am woefully lacking in knowledge of music, music theory, tonality and all
related matters. But I can follow Arthur Peacocke's argument - that the composer
forms "cosmos" out of "chaos." I can create chaos on a keyboard; the result is
noise. The artist uses the same instrument to create music, melody, harmony.
And I can also sense that the execution of a musical score unfolds - the immediate
moment following on what has preceded and flowing into what follows.
It also makes sense to me that both chance and necessity are operative in a jazz
improvisation. I spoke with the master of improvisation last Sunday - Ken
Medema. I told him what I was going to attempt to do today. I said to him, " You
are all over the keyboard with creative freedom; yet you know some things will
work and some will not." He agreed. And I said further, "You are not sure just
where you will end up nor how you will get there." Again, he agreed.
That is the fascination of improvisation - the future is full of surprise; yet there
are certain limits, parameters within which the creative artist must work.
It also makes sense to me that creation is endowed with infinite potentiality
which might be actualized in this manner or in that. I can see then that, if on the
scene of an evolutionary unfolding of billions of years there emerges a creature
like humankind with self-consciousness, awareness, being the vehicle of spirit,
such a creature plays a very real role in the future of cosmic development. If the
Creator took the risk of creating a creature in the image and likeness of the
Creator, self-conscious, creative, free, then a whole new dimension has emerged
in the cosmic drama. Now there is a whole multitude of composers determining
scores of infinite variety raising the complexity of the whole to unimaginable
heights.
It makes sense to me, further, that the emergence of creatures of consciousness,
able to become observers of the cosmic symphony and players in that symphony,
would be the intention of the Creator Who delights in the cosmic play and
delights in the delight of those who come to share that delight, to wonder, to
stand in awe of it all.
And then I love the manner in which God as Jazz Improvisor illumines the idea of
the Creator's transcendence over the cosmos, but is at the same time immanent
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Richard A. Rhem
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in its unfolding as the composer is in her music, so that in the playing of the score
musicians are experiencing the very being of the composer. So, to be engaged in
creative living in this cosmic drama is to know in intimate communion the
Creator Whose Spirit gives life to all.
The human creature, self-conscious, aware, attentive becomes the discerner of
God's amazing creative work in its infinite variety and depth and also the
actualizer of God's intention and purpose. And that actualization follows no rigid,
ironclad form. Actualization will take place in a great variety of ways through the
multiplicity of possible configurations.
That is to say - now the creature becomes herself a jazz improvisor, bringing new
patterns and forms to expression out of the infinite potentiality with which the
Creator has endowed the cosmos.
That points to the incredible responsibility and exhilarating challenge of being
"co-creators" with God. In awe before the Mystery, creative fount of all that is, in
adoration before the wonder of grace as revealed in the face of Jesus, in openness
to the enlivening Spirit that breathes through our being, we worship full of
wonder.
The ancient Hebrew poet captured, beyond what he could have known, the
paradox O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
The moon and the stars that you have established,
What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crown them with glory and honor.
In a cosmic symphony of such dimension, who are we - fragile, vulnerable,
indeed, small. Yet it is we who have become conscious, aware, who are able to
wonder, to worship and, with the Mystery Creator at the center, become cocreators moving the musical score toward humane community, spirituality, and
compassion, actualizing the Eternal Purpose of God for cosmic harmony - a
Divine Oratorio whose theme is "God loves you; all will be well!"
References:
John Knox. The Humanity and Divinity of Christ: A Study of Pattern in
Christology. Cambridge University Press, 1967.
Arthur Peacocke. Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming – Natural,
Divine and Human. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1993.
© Grand Valley State University
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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English
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
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Event
Pentecost V
Series
A Cosmic Symphony
Scripture Text
Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 8, John 1:1-14
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
John Knox, The Humanity and Divinity of Christ, 1967
Arthur Peacocke, Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming-Natural, Divine and Human, 1993
Dublin Core
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KII-01_RA-0-19970622
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1997-06-22
Title
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Divine Improvisation - Human Wonder
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
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Text
Sound
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 22, 1997 entitled "Divine Improvisation - Human Wonder", as part of the series "A Cosmic Symphony", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 8, John 1:1-14.
Compassion
Nature of God
Re-imagining the Faith
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PDF Text
Text
Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story
Text: Acts 17:17; Mark 2:22
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
May 4, 1997
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Neil Postman, whose article I cite on your liturgy this morning, begins that article
with these lines from the poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay,
Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour,
Rains from the sky a meteoric shower of facts ...
they lie unquestioned, uncombined.
Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill
Is daily spun, but there exists no loom
To weave it into fabric.
What an image. What a characterization of our day. The Information Society
which can distribute the meteoric shower of data that inundates us day after day.
Knowledge, knowledge everywhere. And the poet says it lies "unquestioned,
uncombined," enough of it to leech us of our every ill, spun every day. But there is
no loom upon which to weave a fabric, a fabric that could bring meaning to our
lives and give us a sense of the big picture. And so, Neil Postman suggests that we
live in a special time. Our times are not like every time. He speaks of our times as
a darkening moment when all is in change, and we know not yet how to find our
way. And in such a world, Neil Postman suggests, we need a story, a story that
will provide the loom upon which we can weave a fabric of meaning, creating
understanding, giving us confidence and some word of hope for our world.
We can no longer, says Neil Postman, tell the tales that arose from tribes and
clans and nations in ancient times, but neither do we need to invent a new story.
Rather, we need to re-tell the story, looking at it with new eyes, seeing it from a
new perspective, finding its truth and its treasures and bringing them to fresh
expression so that there might be good news and a word of hope in our world.
This is a fascinating time in which to be alive. Challenging, exciting, and also a bit
threatening, because we do not see clearly the way ahead. But, Postman suggests
looking to our stories, basically two stories, an ancient one, the biblical story, and
a more recent one, the story of science unfolding the awesomeness of the cosmic
that has been in development and evolution for 15 billion years. In fascinating
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Richard A. Rhem
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fashion in our day, there is the possibility of weaving those two stories and
retelling them in such a way that we can bring some hope and give some
confidence to our world that is marked by insecurity and moral ambiguity and
spiritual lack. Not a new story, but re-telling the old story, having seen it with
new eyes in new light, and bringing it to fresh and passionate expression.
This is what Jesus was about. In the second chapter of Mark's Gospel, we have
those conflict stories, very typical of Jesus' encounter with the religious
understanding of his day. He was a Jew, a true son of Israel. He never went
outside the riches of that tradition. He stayed within his own scriptures, his own
story. But, he re-told the story in such a way that it was obvious that he was
saying something new, which is characteristically resisted by an established
society in an old tradition – differences about observance, fasting, keeping the
Sabbath - those kinds of matters of religious understanding and traditional
observance and practice.
Jesus was bold in his declarations of what was at the heart of that old tradition. It
does take some courage to say, "It has been written, but I say unto you ..." That is
a challenge. But, sometimes it is necessary to say it that boldly in order to get the
attention of the people, and Jesus again was not inventing something new, but he
was re-telling that story, calling it back to its heart and to its soul. He suggested
in that familiar image that there need to be new wineskins to contain new wine,
the annual harvest that must go through the fermenting process will burst the old
containers, losing the wine and losing the containers. And so, he says, new skins
for new wine. We're so familiar with that, that it hardly strikes us anymore, and
yet, it ought to strike us, for it is the articulation from Jesus of a profound
principle, namely that we in this historical arena, this human experience, have an
ongoing, cumulative kind of experience that cannot always be captured in terms
of the stories that were once told. It cannot be contained in the containers that
once did service to bear it to the world. Jesus was annunciating that principle of
contextuality, where every understanding arises in a concrete context, which will
shape it, which will form it, which will become its container. But, as the context
moves, as the years go by, as the periods of history move, the contents must be
examined anew so that new treasures can be mined from them and brought to
fresh expression, so that the new announcement can have all of the passion and
all of the comfort and all of the challenge with which that initial word issued forth
in the beginning.
Paul didn't knew Jesus in the flesh, but Paul felt the impact of Jesus' life and
teaching, and Paul was of that strict, serious, committed group of the Pharisaic
party who were determined to stamp out the way of Jesus, until he was knocked
to his knees by a burst of light from above, from the ascended, living Lord, turned
around in his tracks, and captured, made captive to the mission of Jesus in the
world. Paul became the great apostle to the Gentiles; he became the shaper of the
Christian movement. Paul structured Christian theological understanding. He
was never anything but a Jew. Neither was Peter, James, or John. But, Paul had
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Richard A. Rhem
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seen something that took all that was familiar and put it into whole new
understanding. To use the overused word, overused generally, I suppose, and
certainly here, Paul affected a paradigm shift. Paul didn't invent something new;
Paul mined the treasures of his own tradition, but in such a way to bring to new
expression God's intention, that intention that had exploded into the world
through Jesus Christ, and once Paul became a follower of Jesus, he saw
everything with new eyes, in a new light, in a new perspective, and shared that
with the whole world.
He came one day to Athens, the university city, the intellectual center of the
western world, and such was his passion and his conviction that God had done
something of cosmic significance through Jesus Christ, that he went right to the
heart of the intellectual establishment and preached Jesus and the resurrection,
at the Areopagus, in the company of the philosophers who spent their days,
according to Luke, doing nothing but playing with ideas. (You wonder how they
supported themselves; I would enjoy that myself.) But, they were happy to hear
from Paul. "Tell us, what do you have to tell us that's new and strange? What kind
of alien deities are you bringing to our city?" Not that that would have been
offensive to them. As a matter of fact, Paul was offended himself, because he saw
in that grand city of Athens temples and statues and images and shrines, and
with his passionate sense that God's truth had come to full expression in Jesus,
he was distressed in his own soul and eager to bring his message right to Athens
itself. But, being a person of some style and class, he began by relating himself
very well to his audience. He began by affirming them, for he spoke of the very
temples and shrines that distressed him, saying in a positive note, "I see that you
are spiritually hungry. I see that you are, indeed, very religious. I see that you are
on a quest. I even discovered a statue to an unknown god. That God I will
proclaim to you."
Then he went back to his own tradition. Now, he could have gone to Isaiah who
talked about Israel being a light to the nations, explaining why Paul was on this
Gentile mission. He could have gone to Abraham whose call included the fact that
God would make Abraham a blessing to all nations. But, Paul didn't do that,
because nobody in Athens cared about Israel. They didn't care about Abraham or
Moses or David or Isaiah. They didn't know anything about them. But, Paul still
had some stories in his pocket. He went back behind Abraham, back to Adam. He
went back to the beginning, to the Creation. He went back to that to which they
could relate.
It is a great sermon Paul preached. He said,
"From one ancestor, God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and
he allotted the times of their existence and boundaries of the places where
they would live so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for
Him and find Him, though, indeed, He is not far from each one of us, for
in God we live and move and have our being. All of you, all of you since
© Grand Valley State University
�Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Adam - that is that commonality of humanity coming from the breath of
God. He gives breath to all and life to all, for in God we live and move and
have our being and even some of your own poets have said, 'For we, too,
are God's offspring.'"
Marvelous, Paul. I'm impressed. You really got to these philosophers. You were
able to meet them on your own turf. You were able to embrace them in this Godcreation, this God Who is the Source of all life and all reality, of the whole
cosmos. Now you've got them. Now tell them about what this God has been about
recently.
Paul goes on to speak of Jesus and the Easter miracle, and, of course, some
balked, but some believed. It was a great effort, I think. Paul had a wonderful
vision. He had a wonderful dream. Paul, this son of Israel, this Hebrew of the
Hebrews, this one who had these stories down pat, going back and looking at the
stories again could retell the story in such a fashion that he could bring to
expression what he was convinced was God's intention, that there not be a wall
dividing people, Jews on one side, Gentiles on another. As he wrote to the Church
at Ephesus that in Jesus Christ, that wall or partition, was taken down, and that
in Jesus Christ there was the creation of one new humanity. Isn't that a dream?
Isn't that a thrilling kind of insight? According to Paul, that's what God was
about. That's what he began to see in what God had most recently done in Jesus
Christ, removing that particularity in order that there might be a new
universality, in order that the humanity that God created in the beginning could
be united in one community.
Well, it didn't happen. Why didn't it happen? Was it a dream dreamed before its
time? Paul was never able, to his anguish, to get his fellow rabbinical, Pharisaical
partners, compatriots of the past, to see it that way. And,by the end of the first
century, with an ongoing Jewish community under the leadership of the
Rabbinical Pharisaic party finding its own way to a new spirituality, Paul almost
couldn't win the day with a Jesus Jewish Movement. He had his tension with
James. He had his arguments with Peter. But, he did win the day there and,
consequently, the Christian movement became a largely Gentile movement.
Paul had a grand dream. It wasn't realized. Paul was wrong about the timetable
that God was on. Paul thought he was living at the edge. Paul expected the return
of the ascended One very soon for the universal judgment. It didn't happen, of
course. We're here 2000 years later. But, Paul was right about God's intention the creation of one human community.
Two thousand years later, how would Paul retell the story if he were here today?
How will we retell the story so that, in this volatile world of ours, so awesome and
so threatening, God's intention for human community will be realized?
Neil Postman says it will not do simply to chant our tales louder or to silence
those who are singing a different song. It won't do.
© Grand Valley State University
�Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
I just completed Karen Armstrong's book, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. If
you want to almost give up on religion in general, read the book. One city, three
faiths, and yet the irony is we're not talking about faiths east and west, Judaism
and Buddhism, Christianity or Hinduism. We're talking about Islam, Judaism,
Christianity. One city, three faiths, all professing faith in the same God, and,
because they all claim Jerusalem as a holy city, we can see that as a microcosm of
the world, and if you read the account by Karen Armstrong of Jerusalem, you will
read of a city that for 2000 years has bled and died and been devastated. It is an
incredible story of three religious faiths claiming one God, the same God, the God
of Abraham, in this case, devastating each other. And there may have been a time
in our world, horrible as it was, that it could happen without destroying the
world. But, not in our world, because that earlier image of a global village has
become a reality.
Paul said God assigns certain people certain time periods and certain places and
sets their boundaries. Well, I got to tell you, Paul, there aren't any boundaries
anymore! Ask those who have circled this globe and see it as a unity, interrelated
totally. No boundaries. No longer any island continents. The electronic media
reaches into every home and hovel and village and valley and mountain peak of
planet earth. We need to re-tell the story so that it again brings to expression
God's ultimate concern for the creation of a human community in which the
respective religious traditions bring their gifts to the altar, enriching one another
and enhancing one another and complementing one another, alone, individually
incomplete, but at the altar of God, embracing one another.
Richard Elliot Friedman, in his book, The Hidden Face of God, says this is the
remarkable time, sort of similar to what Postman says. Friedman says that, with
the science story of this awesome cosmos, we are, ironically, on the brink of
discovering the Divine Reality and, at the same time, we are on the threshold of
planetary catastrophe. If we don't destroy ourselves, we might destroy our planet.
It is a time when it is urgent that we move toward community through the retelling of the story that captures the old, old story of God's love and intention for
one humanity. Friedman says we are in a race. We are in a race toward discovery
or destruction.
Christ Community will play to the tune of discovery, for in this time of the
National Hockey League playoffs, with Danny Bylsma returned from the wars, no
longer in pursuit of the Stanley Cup, I get reminded that once he played with the
great Wayne Gretzky, who said, "One ought to skate where the puck is going, not
where it's been." That text from Gretzky summarizes everything I want to say,
with the closing image from the revelation, the story began in the Garden and is
completed in a city where, from the throne of God, flows the River of the Water
of Life, pure as crystal, on whose banks grows the tree of life whose leaves are for
the healing of the nations. There's an image. There's a loom on which to weave a
fabric of meaning, of wonder, and of hope, as we move into the future, not quite
sure how to find our way.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0d97440c4a112c580b928aec2ce0a80a.mp3
b4b8eed4af98fcce050f2ef5c40187bb
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
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Sound
Text
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Eastertide VI
Scripture Text
Acts 17:16-34, Mark 2:18-28
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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KII-01_RA-0-19970504
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1997-05-04
Title
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Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Text
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 4, 1997 entitled "Re-Tell Me the Old, Old Story", on the occasion of Eastertide VI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Acts 17:16-34, Mark 2:18-28.
Divine Intention
Global Community
Meaning
Re-imagining the Faith
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/417428d2d5fdc317369782343e68f7ff.pdf
43d13a3d31a9193b1383a0af6cabbbcc
PDF Text
Text
Sola Deo Gloria: God Alone
From the series: New Wine For Century 21
Text: Isaiah 45:22; Romans 11:36
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
October 20, 1996
Transcribed from a tape recording of the spoken message.
This is an exciting time for us as we re-imagine the Church; we have an
opportunity to think again about the Church of Jesus Christ and what it means to
be the body of Christ. Actually, we aren't the first to have that opportunity. In
fact, we stem from a movement that was a total rethinking and reshaping of the
Church of Christ, for, in the 16th century, the Church became reformed according
to the Word of God in its Protestant manifestation and, although that had all of
the tragedy of human cussedness, division and brokenness, nonetheless, the 16th
century was a time in which the Church was re-imagined and it was reformed and
there was a new vitality and life that flowed into the body of Christ. So, in this
month of October, this month of Reformation, I thought it would be well for us,
on the threshold of new beginnings as we search for that new wine for new
wineskins, to revisit some of those great old themes that came to expression in
that re-imagining of the Church in the 16th century.
The theme of the morning is Sola Deo Gloria: To God Alone Be Glory. The glory
of God was the very center of that movement of reformation, and the churches
that flowed out of that rupture in the Church. The glory of God - all of life lived
before the face of God and the totality of life lived for the glory of God. In the
expression of the Westminster Confession which came a century later, after the
Reformation itself, the first question and answer which some of you
Presbyterians learned was, "What is the chief end of the human person?" The
answer: "To glorify God and enjoy God forever." And so, that was very much a
central theme that came out of that renewal of the Church. As we seek to find a
fresh expression of that theme, we want to try to understand what it was that
brought that renewal movement in the Church to that central focus on the glory
of God. Sola Deo Gloria.
The Protestant Church in its reformed expression has been particularly
characterized by that theme, and that theme is perhaps identified not only with
the reformed branch of the Protestant movement, but especially with John
Calvin, the founding figure of the Reformed expression of the faith. When I say
John Calvin, I suppose there are all kinds of images that are conjured up in your
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Deo Gloria: God Alone
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
mind because, although he is one of the truly great figures of the human story, I
think no one has had a worse press than John Calvin. Perhaps this morning, as
we revisit this theme, we can try to do some justice to Calvin, try to give a fair
overview of this church leader, and also recognize that that which has shaped us
in our past is something that we would not want to lose as we move into a future
that is uncharted. The new wine and new wineskins, fresh expression - not simply
a slavish imitation of that which has been said or thought or brought to
expression, but nonetheless, the intention, the intention behind that central
insight is as important for us as it was for them. All of life lived before the face of
God, all of life issuing in the glory of God.
The word glory has been cheapened. Everything is glorious, from an outstanding
fielding play in the World Series to some great touchdown catch this afternoon in
the National Football League. Everything is glorious nowadays. Words get coopted; they lose their original intention and meaning. The word glory is a word
that we get from the Hebrew word, K_bõd, which means weighty, or heavy. The
glory of God was an expression of the radiance of God, which conveyed the sense
of the weightiness of God. I think we still understand that use of weight. That's a
weighty thought, a weighty idea. Or, how do you weigh the suggestion that ...?
Maybe we get an understanding of Calvin's sense of God's glory if we think about
some of the youth language of our day when they say, "That's heavy." Well, in our
Calvinist tradition, God was heavy – and heavy in the sense of weighty, in the
sense of to be revered, because God, in God's godness, is beyond description,
awesome. But also heavy in the sense that the shadow of God was cast over our
lives, not always setting our feet to dancing, but often binding the human spirit.
The heaviness of God creating, as it were, heaviness in the human person. As I
look out over this congregation, I think I could call on any number of you who
could tell me horror stories about how the heaviness of God marked you with a
certain heaviness at some point in your Christian experience.
As I said, John Calvin is one of the great spirits of the human story and probably
has as poor a press as anybody. I am not here this morning to exonerate him from
all of that which has been attributed to him over the centuries, but I do want to
say that John Calvin in his heart was a pastor. He never was a theologian, per se;
he never was a systematic theologian; he was, first of all, a preacher and a pastor
and he had the lives of his people in Geneva on his heart. It was his intention to
bring the greatness of God to bear on the lives of that people in order that their
lives might be lived seriously and responsibly, fruitfully issuing in the glory of
God. That was his intention at its best.
The 16th century was a century of great unrest. It was not unlike our present
historical period. Everything was in ferment. There were movements among the
nations, the national groupings, ethnic groupings; there was economic ferment;
there was social disruption and, obviously, there was the breaking apart of the
established Church, the Roman Catholic Church. It was a time in which the
foundations were being eroded. Calvin was a man, according to William
Bouwsma, in his classic work, John Calvin, who was full of anxiety, torn between
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Deo Gloria: God Alone
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
the images of the abyss and the labyrinth. The abyss, for Calvin, meant that, as
everything seemed to be shifting, there were no boundaries. The disorientation
that comes into human life when there are no boundaries distressed him. He was
afraid of that sense of free fall. He was a humanist scholar and that attracted him,
and yet, all of that new ferment that was seething into life in the 16th century
gave him great anxiety. But, on the other hand, the person alienated from God
was entrapped in self-concern and that entrapment called the labyrinth, the
image that Calvin used, also was something from which he wanted to steer clear,
and so he found himself a person not without doubt and anxiety, seeking in his
trust, his faith in God to find a standing place in the midst of that time that was
full of turmoil.
As a pastor, he was seeking to bring the impress of the image of Christ on his
people. He did that with great seriousness. You cannot read Calvin, you cannot be
exposed to any of that history without having that overwhelming sense that God
was big for Calvin, God was heavy, and Calvin was serious. Calvin was a second
generation, really. He was later than Luther. Luther's experience erupted in the
Reformation and the Lutheran experience of grace we'll look at next week. It was
a freeing experience; it was an experience of transformation. Calvin didn't ever
have his toes tingle, wanting to dance. He was, however, very concerned to
understand the Word of God and to know the will of God and he wasn't so
interested in personal experience. He was far more interested in calling people to
obedience, to the serious and responsible execution of the will of God and to live
all life to the glory of God.
I am not so sure I would have wanted to be a part of his Geneva. Krister Stendahl
was here last week and, in the Perspectives hour on Sunday, he shocked me with
an analogy that I never would have made myself. In fact, what he said in this
Reformed Church - I would have thought the roof would have caved in, because,
in talking about comparing religious faiths, he said, you know you have to
compare apples to apples. For example, if you want to talk about John Calvin, you
have to talk about the Ayatollah Khomeini, and I said, "Oh, my goodness, Krister!
You may be a bishop, but that doesn't mean you couldn't go to hell for something
like that!" But then I thought about it. Khomeini to us is a bad man, associated
with all of the worst of Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, with the coercive,
forceful change of society. That's how I see him.
But, if you are a devout Muslim who believes that the world has gone to rot and
that its salvation lies in the transformation of society according to the serious
Islamic code, then Khomeini is a man who is simply living out publicly in the
political structures that which was the deep religious devotion of his heart. Yes, I
would have to say I guess that's probably just exactly what John Calvin was
about. John Knox, the Scottish reformer, came to Geneva and left, saying there
has never been a more perfect school of Christ than the city of Geneva under
John Calvin. I mean, the impress was there. It was worked at intentionally but,
lacking the exuberant experience of grace of a Luther, having a tendency or a
proneness toward legality and rules and obedience. That concern became, in
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Deo Gloria: God Alone
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
much of its expression, oppressive, and that's about as honest an appraisal as I
can give it while at the same time recognizing that here was a pastor who was
really concerned to have the image of Christ shaped on his people and on his city,
and who was concerned to have all of human life under the aegis of Christ, to live
all of life before the face of God.
I only know Latin in a few phrases, and one of my favorites is Corum Deo, before
the face of God. That was central to John Calvin. That carried right down through
the generations - to live before the face of God, the whole of life. That means I
don't take care of the Sunday obligation and then go out and carry on my
business any old way I please. It means I don't do my ritual service and then carry
on my personal life in any old way I please. It means that I don't have a closet, a
compartment that is not accessible by the God before Whose face I live. That
brings a certain seriousness into life. And God knows, most of us probably do
better by living with a consciousness that we are living before the face of God, so
that’s to the credit of that intention. And I would suggest that any new wine that
we discover and any new wineskins into which we pour it we will want to give
place for a fresh expression of what it means, on the threshold of Century 21, to
live before the face of God.
That being granted, we can also see that it is the God that we conceive of that will
make the difference whether or not that life is one that is bathed in grace or one
that is bound with legality. And that's the critical difference.
Calvin gave us much. One of the things that he gave us that has so marked our
tradition is that probing to know too much. Not unlike the apostle Paul who tried
to figure out God's thoughts. He forgot the word of the prophet, the Word of God
that came through the prophet that said, "My ways are not your ways; my
thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts
are higher than your thoughts." Paul, in the midst of his ministry following his
encounter with Jesus Christ, became the Apostle to the Gentiles. The Gentile
mission was flourishing, but his own people did not see what he saw; they did not
see Jesus as the Messiah. So here's Paul, the Jew, bringing the grace of God to the
Gentile world, trying to figure out what it is with his own brothers and sisters.
That's what he's struggling with in Romans 9, 10 and 11. I think Krister Stendahl
is right; that's what the whole letter is about. Paul is trying to justify his bringing
the grace of God to Gentiles, not demanding that they become Jews. Paul had
that transforming insight - God is embracing the nations without the nations
becoming Jewish. But, what about his own brothers and sisters? They didn't see
it; they were blocked against what he saw in Jesus. And so he wrestles with it, not
very successfully, I think. What he said in the passage we read is that the Jews
were hardened against Jesus so that there would be a door open to the Gentiles,
and then when the Gentiles come in, the Jews will be jealous and come in, too.
He was trying to figure out what he, himself, knew was a mystery. He used the
word mystery, but thought he understood the mystery. In fact, he was warning
the Gentiles against pride over against the Jews. He said, "I tell you a mystery,
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Deo Gloria: God Alone
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
lest you become conceited." He knew it was a mystery, but isn't it human to try to
"explain" the mystery, anyway? But, when he comes to the conclusion - a
wonderful conclusion - all are disobedient that God may have mercy on all. That
which was at the heart of Paul's experience was a God of grace who would not
abandon and would not give up. So he comes to that conclusion of this broad
swath of the grace of God, and then he throws up his hands and breaks out into
doxology!
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has
known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?... To him be
the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33ff)
That is where John Calvin's insistence on the glory of God best comes to
expression, in that worship when one is lost in wonder, love and praise. As our
own mission statement says, "We live together in the awe of worship in the
Presence of the Mystery of God..."
John Carmody, in How to Handle Trouble, writes,
The basic fact that we dwell in the midst of a reality we cannot understand
has been my fulcrum. If we would get to the roots of our troubles, we must
come to terms with our radical ignorance. We shall never master life as if it
were a mathematical problem. We shall always need to cast ourselves
upon its waters as pilgrims living by faith. The masters of spiritual life
show us why we always depend on the mystery and how we may come to
love our constant dependence. What I have loved in contemplation is the
relief it offers. My mind clatters along, hour after hour, entering into the
cloud of unknowing. Finally stops my mind.
It is in that rare experience where our minds are blown (that's Krister Stendahl's
definition for transcendence - that which "blows your mind"), that which is
beyond our conceptual possibility, that which is the experience of the holy, that is
the moment when we best bring glory to God.
John Buchanan, the pastor of The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago, tells
the story of the Thanksgiving service that was held in the downtown area last
year. He said it's a Monday night service and all of the pastors of the respective
congregations come, and their families and a few friends, to support the
ministers. But, as a matter of fact, it's on Monday night and it can't compete with
Monday Night Football. A year before they had invited a Jewish congregation and
that was fine. A few members of all the congregations were there again. And last
year it was their turn and they decided to invite also an Islamic group and a
Buddhist group. He thought to himself, "What are we doing? Are we just trying to
spice this thing up? After all, we'll never make it anyway; it's the Dolphins against
the 49ers tonight, you know." But, he said, he gave the greeting, and the Catholic
priest from the cathedral read a lesson and the Buddhist a litany, and then an
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Deo Gloria: God Alone
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
Islamic chanter went to the lectern and, in rich, melodious tones in his beautiful
voice, began to chant in Arabic lessons and prayers from the Koran. Buchanan
said it was amazing.
Something happened in that congregation worshiping - they were moved. The
rabbi's sermon followed, and then a soprano sang Leonard Bernstein's "A Simple
Song." He said afterwards, "We all knew that something had happened!" It had
occurred in the beautiful chanting of an Islamic cantor, in a foreign language to
most, from another culture, but something that transcends our thinking, that
touches us deeply, moving us out of ourselves, bringing us to what Paul must
have meant when he said to God be glory forever and ever. In the face of this
thing I can't figure out, in the face of this tragedy that I'm struggling with, in the
face of the difficulties of life that seem so overwhelming - finally there comes that
moment of being lost in wonder, love and praise, when from the depths one
expresses what is the intention of one's life, that all of life would be glory to God
forever and ever.
Sola Deo Gloria.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1b914b52667e58c294b4f8cf66b3d37a.mp3
85d347bf68e50a9f5ad7ae3c7eee3040
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
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Sound
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Event
Pentecost XXI
Series
New Wine for Century 21
Scripture Text
Isaiah 45:22, Romans 11:36
Location
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
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KII-01_RA-0-19961020
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1996-10-20
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Sola Deo Gloria: God alone
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 20, 1996 entitled "Sola Deo Gloria: God alone", as part of the series "New Wine for Century 21", on the occasion of Pentecost XXI, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 45:22, Romans 11:36.
John Calvin
Nature of God
Re-imagining the Faith
Reformation
Worship
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1ad295160c13adbdf800f133ae15de0f.pdf
83d69ba76376ccf621e50dd3bd9fa7f0
PDF Text
Text
Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
From the series: New Wine for Century 21
Text: Mark 2:22; John 1:14
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
October 6, 1996
Transcription of the spoken sermon
September was a time for team participation in the preaching, speaking about
New Beginnings, the dimensions of life that are before us. October issues in the
month of Reformation, and Reformation, as we have celebrated it here for 25
years, has not been a celebration of our over-againstness, over against the Roman
Catholic tradition out of which the Protestant tradition arose in the 16th century,
but it has been a celebration of that which I think has been central to the
Reformation at its best, and that is that the Church is the Church of Jesus Christ.
It is not the Reformed Church; it is the Church of Jesus Christ, re-formed
according to the word of God and always being re-formed.
I have enjoyed preaching in the fall; I've often addressed doctrinal or theological
themes out of our tradition because I think it's a time between the seasons, and
that is who are, that is whence we have come, and therefore, to rethink the faith that's been a fall menu around here. This is an especially good time to do that,
this year, 1996, October, 1996. For, even though we have been operating as an
independent congregation with our life and our ministry before us, nonetheless,
the news that we have, finally, closure from the other side and that all of that can
be put behind us, even in the sense of the dangling details, makes this a special
October, and a wonderful season for us to think about the Church in terms of its
dynamism and its always being in a state of reformation and renewal.
We were born out of a period of radical revolution. One of the interesting,
fascinating things about human experience is that there is, again and again, an
outburst of renewal, of new energy, of new life, of creativity, new vision, and
everyone is excited and tastes a new wine. Then, the children's children's
children, who lose that fresh blush of newness, begin to build an idol out of that
which was once so dynamic and alive, and they miss the joy of that explosion of
the Spirit and begin to bow to forms and structures that are simply the aftermath,
the consequence, of that burning new life that came to expression. So, in this
moment in our life together, we have a rare, rare opportunity to re-imagine the
Church.
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
You know, this is a fantastic time in which to be alive. Everything is changing;
everything is spinning wildly out of its course. The breakthroughs in science and
the technological developments, the electronic age, the fact that the whole globe
becomes a neighborhood - all of the interconnections and networking around the
globe - nothing, nothing is stable, nothing is the same. Everything is up in the air!
What an exciting time to be alive, isn't it?
You might say, "Well, I could handle it a little bit slower paced, thank you very
much."
But we don't have that choice. As a matter of fact, we are a part of a time in
history when everything is being re-negotiated and when there is nothing that is
solid and secure. That can be anxiety-producing. But, if we could only get our
mind and our heart set, and if we could only understand our human situation as
it really is, a very limited and finite and partial view of things, but secure in the
eternal God, the eternal God Who is a substratum and Who overshadows it all,
we could then enter in with zest to this exciting time in which our whole world is
opening up new possibilities, closing old doors and breaking through to new
vistas. We at Christ Community have what is a very rare opportunity to reimagine the Church.
This noon your governance groups are going to begin the first stage in planning
the future, and what we are really focusing on today is October 27, an afternoon
planned after our Stewardship Party in which your governance groups (and I
hope there will be a hundred or more of the rest of you. Any of you that are
interested, any of you that want to be a part of it, will come with us) will meet for
a period of about four hours and think the Church, think Christ Community,
think in a way we've never thought before. Re-imagine the Church! Think about
Century 21. Think about our times, our community, our situation, and how we
can re-imagine this church so that it will be in 2001 what we want it to be as we
contemplate our future.
October is Reformation month and I have often used it as a time to revisit some
of the great central themes of the faith. So, I'm going to begin today with a new
wine that needs to be poured into fresh wineskins, looking at some of the old,
central themes that have made us what we are. A little Latin for our palate this
morning: "Sola Scriptura," sola - only, or alone; scriptura - scripture. Sola
Scriptura: the scripture alone as our authority for faith and for life, for what we
believe and how we live. That will be followed in subsequent weeks with Sola
Gratia, grace alone, Sola Fidei, faith alone, and Sola Deo Gloria, to God alone be
glory.
Those were great themes that arose in the 16th century. They were those great
insights that came out of the tragic break of the Christian Church, forming, then,
out of the Roman Catholic tradition, the Protestant tradition of which we are a
part. But those Reformation themes, tragic though the split and the rending of
the body of Christ was, those great themes brought forth fresh insights that were
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
very, very critical, and we want to look at them together for a few weeks just to
see how they look from this perspective and what they say to us and how they will
continue to inform and shape our lives, as we move into a future in which we are
re-imagining together what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ.
Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone. That is, that it is the holy scripture that gives us
the content of our faith and that shows us the way of life. This book has been
central in the life of the Reformation tradition. Historically, the pulpit was in the
center and the open word in the Bible was an architectural statement about the
centrality in the word of God, and we have been a part of that tradition that has
taken seriously this written word.
Now, let me begin by saying that the greatest living American historian of
Christian doctrine, Jaroslav Pelikan, in his volume on the Reformation, in the
preface to that volume, says "Sola Scriptura. It never was true." Never was true in
the sense that in the 16th century the Reformation Party went to the word of God
without any preconditions or any preconceptions or any biases or any prejudices
as though they could go with a blank sheet, fresh to the Bible, find out something
totally new and then live by that alone. Pelikan, a good historian, an honest
scholar, says, "Come on, Reformation people, Lutheran and Reformed, let's admit
it. There never has been a time when it was simply the Bible."
The Reformation of the 16th century was highly contextual; it was coming out of
that medieval structure and all of the dominance of that religious institution.
There were actions and reactions, charges and counter charges, people with
passion, people with jealousies, people with vested interest. There have never
been any saints that have been absolutely pure and clear. There have only always
been people who have been played upon by pressures from the left and from the
right, who have been limited in their judgment and limited in their commitment,
who have tried to find their way.
So, Sola Scriptura, in the sense of the Protestant tradition being totally shaped by
this book and this book alone? No. Never has been true.
But, that doesn't mean that that claim or that ideal is not terribly important. And
how did it arise? Well, you know a little Reformation history. You know about the
good Roman Catholic monk, Martin Luther. Luther never intended to break the
Church, never intended to leave the Church. He was a scholar, a good German
monk, a very devout and pious man. He nailed his 95 Theses on the church door
in Wittenberg in order to engage in a discussion. There were points he wanted to
debate. He thought that dialogue in the Church was important and necessary.
What eventuated was far beyond anything he had ever conceived. But, in the
process, he did get into the debate. There was a Dr. Eck, extremely acute,
representing the Roman Catholic institution. In their debate, Eck, with all of his
debating skills, put Luther into a corner where Luther had to admit that he
believed that the Church in its council, had erred. And to say that the Church in
its council had erred was to say that the Church could err, and therefore, that the
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
Church was not infallible, not infallible in its institutional expression, not
infallible in its Papal head. And you can do a lot of things and get away with it,
but you'd better not challenge the infallibility of a formidable institution like the
Church of Rome.
And so, in daring to stand up against the massive power of that institution,
Luther eventually was excommunicated and we have a Protestant tradition now
and an ongoing Roman Catholic tradition. But, Luther, in his experience, not as
though he sat down and figured this out in his study, but just in the concrete
experience, recognized that the Church in its human form, its historical form, had
to be called to account.
How do you call the Church to account? How do you call its leadership to
account? How do you challenge its theological formulation or its ethical practice
or its political organization? How do you call the Church to account? You have to
have something over above; you have to have a normative principle. And I think
it was out of that that we have that Reformation insight, sola scriptura. It was a
radical insight. It was not, as it has become in our day, in conservative circles,
that the Bible becomes the instrument of conservatism.
The Bible became the hammer that broke open the conservatism of the Church.
The Bible, in Luther's view and as the reformers came to understand it generally,
was that instrument that held the Church accountable. It was that instrument
that held the tradition accountable. Now, no Pope or Cardinal or Bishop could
say, "But, the Church thus and so ..." because there was now a counter principle,
and according to the Reformation insight, this counter principle was superior to,
over against the ecclesiastical organization. This counter principle was superior
to all creedal formulations and all traditional organization. The whole Christian
tradition was held up to the light of examination that flowed from this book.
Now, again, it wasn't the book as book, but it was the book as the container of the
story. It was the book as the agent, the instrument through which the ongoing
Word of God came to expression.
What Luther was going through in the 16th century is no different from what
Jesus went through in the first century. In the first Gospel reading from Mark,
Jesus is criticized because his disciples don't carry on an ordinary fast. In that
whole section he is criticized because they don't keep the Sabbath; he's criticized
because he heals on the Sabbath and they pick grain on the Sabbath and so on.
One would think, just between us, don't let it get out of this room, but, one would
think if one read the Gospel, and if one tried to follow Jesus, one would think that
one could never accuse another of being radical or of challenging tried and true
ways, because isn't that the whole tension of the Gospel? Was not Jesus bringing
to bear on his religious institution, on the conventional wisdom and the
organizational structure, a critique from the Word of God?
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
You see, the Word of God is never in a book. The book is the conveyor of the
Word of God. But, the Word of God is the Word of God; it's living! It is powerful;
it is creative; it is the breath of the Spirit here and now; it is always, always
dynamic. It is always addressing us, encountering us, judging us, healing us,
comforting us. Jesus was representing the tradition, which certainly was all
wound up with what the prophets had spoken and Moses had written. That was
the story. Not that its written form was so sacred, but the written form was that
which conveyed the story. But the story was the story of the living God. The Word
of God is something more than the book.
"In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was
God. All things that were made were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made." This Word of God or this idea of God or this
intention of God, this purpose of God was in the beginning, creating, effecting,
and all things were made by the Word. This was the light that was coming into
the world, the light that enlightens everyone coming into the world. This light. He
came to his own, and his own didn't receive him, didn't understand, but to those
that did hear and receive, to them gave he power to become the children of God,
to be born anew, not by a human action, by a human will. But this was an action
of God, you see, the living God. And in the fullness of time, at just the right time,
this Word, this eternal Word, this eternal intention, this eternal purpose, this
movement of God took on flesh and dwelt among us. The Word became flesh. The
Word of God can never be captured, can never be put in a book as though
somehow or other, if you've got a text, that's it. This book is the consequence of
that encounter with God. The living God through the Spirit, speaks.
And then, according to the good pleasure of God, there were those prophets and
apostles who wrote it down, who gave witness to that encounter. And so, the
Church says, that's our story, and we read it. We read it and, lo and behold, here
and there, now and again it strikes fire in our hearts and in our imagination.
The Church has a storybook. It doesn't worship the book. We don't say a lot about
the Bible. You'll find a lot said about the Bible where people are rather insecure
about whether or not it's really living and powerful. You only worry about the
source of authority when you've got to thump somebody over the head or you're
not really convinced about what you're doing. Insecurity is measured by the
degree to which people pound this book. We don't say a lot about the book, but
we try to turn the story loose every week, because we know that this is the means
that God uses to address us. That is, to address us in our church structure, to
critique us, to shatter our forms, to address us in our doctrinal formulations, to
help us clear the ground so that sometimes in the light of new experience and
new developments, we can have a new formulation, a deeper understanding.
There is no creedal formulation that is sacred. There is no ecclesiastical structure
that is sacred. We may not absolutize and make ultimate anything that human
heart or mind or hand has constructed. That's the Protestant principle. God alone
is sovereign. God alone is ultimate. And this book is a storybook that the living
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
God uses, through the Spirit, through the foolishness of preaching like this, now
and again, here and there, to shape us up, shake us up, make us new, create us
again, call us to dance and to sing and to find some grand new future that we
haven't yet dreamed of.
You see, the book is radical. It will keep us from finding a resting place. It will
keep us from being comfortable. It will keep us on the move. It will open for us
and interpret for us the ever-changing landscape of a world that is spinning
wildly out of orbit. It will continue to be that reference point that will help us to
remember our past and to find our way into the future. And when we say sola
scriptura, what we're really saying is that it holds a place in our life that no creed
can hold, it holds a place in our life that no ecclesiastical structure can hold, it
holds the normative place in our life so that, wherever we go in the future,
however we shape ourselves, whatever we confess, however we live, it will be in
dialogue with this storybook and with no other reference point.
Now, this thing isn't read in a vacuum. We read it in the total complex of our
lives. But, finally, prayerfully, humbly, openly, we place ourselves before this
book and, sometimes, it's Bingo!
The Jewish scholar, Martin Buber, suggests a way that I wish could be true for all
of us as we approach the Bible. "Read the Bible as though it were something
entirely unfamiliar." (That's our problem, you know. We already know before we
go there what the answer is. And we generally go there in order to buttress the
answer, rather than to be unmasked and undressed by a strange word). But,
Buber says,
"Read the Bible as though it were something entirely unfamiliar, as though
it had not been set before you, ready made. Face the book with a new
attitude as something new... let whatever may happen occur between
yourself and it. You do not know which of its sayings or images will
overwhelm you and mold you...."
Wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't it be great to read this book with fresh
eyes so that something reached right out and grabbed you, made you cry or made
you laugh? Or broke through to you like you never believed possible? Wouldn't
that be wonderful?" But, hold yourself open. Do not believe anything a priori. Do
not disbelieve anything a priori. Read aloud the words written in the book in
front of you; hear the word you utter and let it reach you."
Sola Scriptura. This book is loved and is a part of our devotion and our worship.
We don't worship it, but we know that it tells the story and keeps the story alive
and keeps us always potentially targets for the living voice of the living God.
Sola Scriptura. There's no need to defend it, to try to buttress it beyond just
simply opening ourselves to it. I'm accused of not taking the Bible seriously, but
only by those who already know its contents before they ever open it afresh. Let's
© Grand Valley State University
�Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
never be too sure we have it all wrapped up, because it is the living God with
Whom we have to do, and this is the place, this is the book, and by the grace of
God, God keeps meeting us as we open our lives to it. That's not going to change,
because there is enough, there is enough newness and dynamic power for any
future of which we can conceive, and that future will always be structured in
conversations with this book. Sola Scriptura.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7a4ffd698879ce8247f726b6d0c395ba.mp3
506f95f8141ecc564b83cb9b5ce09d95
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost XIX
Series
New Wine for Century 21
Scripture Text
Mark 2: 18-22, John 1:1-14
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19961006
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1996-10-06
Title
A name given to the resource
Sola Scriptura: The Living Word
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 6, 1996 entitled "Sola Scriptura: The Living Word", as part of the series "New Wine for Century 21", on the occasion of Pentecost XIX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Mark 2: 18-22, John 1:1-14.
Re-imagining the Faith
Reformation
Revelation
Scripture
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2bea7da39419fbfb0ea6cadbcbdf1140.pdf
b3f21e76ca7eca4cd0f86f13e8794639
PDF Text
Text
The One We Proclaim
Text: II Corinthians 4:5, Matthew 16:16
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
June 30, 1996
Transcription of the spoken sermon
This is the 30th of June. On the thirtieth of June, 1960, I was ordained to the
Ministry of the Word and Sacraments in this congregation, coming here following
my graduation from Western Theological Seminary. I was ordained to the
ministry within the Reformed Church in America by the Classis of Muskegon. It
was not a Sunday in 1960, but a Thursday evening. And it was hot and the
sermon preached by the pastor of my home church in Kalamazoo was very long.
My inaugural sermon had as its text the text of this morning - II Corinthians 4:5.
It was a text a pastor I much admired had printed on his calling card. I had it
printed on my cards, too. And I chose it as the text of my first sermon as an
ordained pastor because it summed up concisely my understanding of the
pastoral office.
Now, thirty-six years later, the same Classis is about to depose me from
ordination in the Reformed Church. Since today is the anniversary of my
ordination, I thought I would re-visit my inaugural text. Part of the process of
preparation for this message was painful; I took out the file of that first sermon
and read it. I did recognize one similarity with my present preaching - the sermon
was long. But, thank God, there are some things that have changed.
I received a card a couple months ago from an old friend from a congregation I
served the summer before my ordination year - the summer of 1959. She had read
the news reports about me and was quite upset. Her question to me was, "Have
you changed?" To that question, I would have to answer, "Yes, thank God. Thirtysix years of serious engagement with the word of God, with human experience,
with my own maturation, with history's changing landscape has changed me." To
be alive is to change, is it not?
Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian, the greatest of the 20th century, in an
introduction to one of his volumes of Dogmatics, addresses the charge that he
has changed his theological position. To that he responded, "If it appears I have
changed my thinking, it is because I am a pilgrim and I keep moving and as I
move, the landscape through which I move changes."
© Grand Valley State University
�The One We Proclaim
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Yes, on this anniversary of my ordination thirty-six years ago, I acknowledge I
have changed. And if I had taken along the sermon I preached on the text of the
morning thirty-six years ago, you would be very happy indeed that I've changed.
Not that I should be too hard on myself. I had worked at the sermon responsibly.
There was an honest exposition of the text and the application was not
inappropriate for one beginning ministry in a congregation. But, as I re-read the
sermon yesterday, I reflected on what it was that was missing. And I suppose, not
surprisingly, I concluded that there was nothing in the message that really came
to grips with the human situation of the congregation; there was no vital
connection to human experience.
I think I understand that.
I would have been typed as a very conservative Christian minister. I had been
richly nurtured in the Christian faith and I had applied myself to the study of
Scripture and Reformed theology. But I had little knowledge of the human person
and very little human experience. That is not a criticism; I was young. One so
young has not a very large store of experience from which to speak.
I will make a criticism however; it is this: one so young with so little human
experience ought not to be so certain he had the answer to the multiple human
dilemmas simply because he preached Jesus Christ. I've admitted this fault many
times - I had the answers; I simply had not yet learned the questions. And the
right answer to the wrong question is always wrong.
As I said, I had learned and I preached Reformed theology and I now see that that
was why my preaching failed to reach to the heart of the human situation - I was
preaching Reformed theology.
The problem with that struck me this week when I read a letter from the
Muskegon Classis Minister, Rick Veenstra, to the Christian members of the
Jewish Christian Dialogue Committee who had written Classis on my behalf. It
was not a very gracious letter and lacked class. In it, Veenstra said, "The
Reformation tradition is reformed according to the Word of God." The words
jumped out at me; I recognized the misunderstanding he expressed. It was the
same problem with my early preaching, indeed, with my first sermon to this
congregation. Reformed has become a noun or an adjective, as in "Reformed
theology." But in its origin in the 16th century, when it is operating according to
the originating vision, it is a verb. The genius of the 16th century Reformation of
the Church was that the Church was re-formed according to the word of God and
always being re-formed. As soon as one claims a Reformed theology, the renewal
is over. The burst of spiritual vision and energy has again been mastered and
managed and packaged. Now there is a new system rather than a biblical faith
that is being redefined, newly translated and bringing illumination to the ongoing
human story.
© Grand Valley State University
�The One We Proclaim
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
In a word, I came here thirty-six years ago with a packaged theology to preach
and teach. I had a system of doctrine to inculcate into this congregation quite
apart from the fact that it was 1960 or quite apart from the particular people who
made up this congregation.
Have I changed? Yes, indeed; thank God! Changed in my understanding of the
place of theological formulation - seeing it now, not as a closed system of truths, a
set of propositions to be assented to, but as a living, moving interpretation of
human experience from the perspective of faith in the God revealed in Scripture.
But, in another sense, I've not changed. I take my text of thirty-six years ago and
set it before you this morning - Paul's words which I appropriate still for a
statement of my ministry.
For we proclaim not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. (II Corinthians 4:5)
Christ Jesus or Messiah Jesus - that is, Jesus the one anointed with Spirit, is the
One I proclaim. How much more I believe in him now than then. Then he was
Savior; my almost total concentration was on his death for sin, removing our
guilt, opening up the possibility of heaven for those who professed his name.
But now I stand in awe of his life. Now I see in him such openness to people, so
full of grace. Now I see him as the window into the heart of God. His life
challenges me. I sense his claim on my life - how I live here and now. Then I
thought he came to die; now I believe he came to live and to call his people to
such living. Then I saw him as God/human - other than I; now I see him as my
flesh and blood brother who calls me and inspires me to follow in his steps.
I love him more. He moves me more. I believe in him and I believe God brought
him out of death into God's Presence.
Christ Jesus is Lord, says Paul. Lord - as opposed to Caesar as Lord. Jesus is Lord
- relativizing all my allegiances, political, economic, social. Jesus is Lord.
He is the one I proclaim because I believe, as Paul went on to say, that God, the
Creator, the one who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In
other words, I believe Jesus was the embodiment of God in human flesh.
Why did Paul make this clear declaration? Because some had come into this
Corinthian congregation which he had founded and criticized him and accused
him of unfaithful proclamation of the Gospel. The Second Letter to the
Corinthians is probably an amalgam of several letters, but it is obvious Paul's
apostleship was under fire. Note how chapter 3 begins:
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again: Surely we do not need, as
some do, letters of recommendation ...
© Grand Valley State University
�The One We Proclaim
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
And in 2:17, he writes,
For we are not peddlers of God's word like so many; but in Christ we speak
as persons sent from God and standing in God's presence.
In 4:2, he asserts,
We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to
practice cunning or falsify God's word; but by the open statement of the
truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of
God.
What was going on?
It is difficult to determine exactly the circumstances, but it may well have been
that Paul's breakthrough vision - that God was embracing the Gentiles by grace
through faith, not requiring that they follow the Mosaic ritual law - was seen by
his opponents as heretical. Therefore, they came into the congregation and
stirred up trouble creating tension between Paul and some of the people.
That brings me back to the weakness of my inaugural sermon on this text - I had
a theological understanding of Jesus Christ but I had no sense of the question
Bonhoeffer asked in his Letters and Papers from Prison:
The thing that keeps coming back to me is, what is Christianity, and
indeed what is Christ, for us today?
It is that question that drives my ministry after all these years. I proclaim not
another - the one I proclaim is Jesus Christ - The word made flesh in whose face
we see into the heart of God.
But to put flesh and blood on that proclamation, to say more than the name, to
say what it means for our lives here and now - that is the challenge of preaching.
To say some meaningful, helpful word to people trying to negotiate this baffling,
frightening, fascinating world - that is the task. To connect Jesus Christ to
present human experience: that is the calling of the preacher.
Let me extend to you the grace of God as Jesus revealed it by assuring you,
whoever you are, whatever your history, whatever your present circumstance,
God's grace already embraces you, you are valued, you are loved. And if that
reality ever breaks fully over you, your life will change and little by little by the
Spirit of God you will take on the likeness of Jesus and in your life image him who
is the image of God.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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7d0dd98c38715ff9082ef23650349658
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
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Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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English
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Sound
Text
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
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Event
Pentecost V
Scripture Text
II Corinthians 4:5, Matthew 16:16
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
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KII-01_RA-0-19960630
Date
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1996-06-30
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The One We Proclaim
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
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Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on June 30, 1996 entitled "The One We Proclaim", on the occasion of Pentecost V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 4:5, Matthew 16:16.
Grace of God
Nature of Religion
Re-imagining the Faith
Reformation
-
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a3d41a836b1e01de3bfbc6116b62c57e
PDF Text
Text
In the Holy Spirit: Butterflies Are Free
From the series: I Do Believe
Scripture: Exodus 34:29-35, II Corinthians 3:1-4:2
Text: II Corinthians 3:17
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Pentecost, May 26, 1996
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Butterflies are free. I do believe in the Holy Spirit, and I believe that the Spirit is
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of freedom. For Pentecost 1996, for Christ
Community Church, the butterfly is an appropriate symbol. It's an ancient
symbol in the Church for the resurrection because of the transformation, the
metamorphosis that it goes through from the caterpillar, the cocoon, to the
butterfly - this magnificent little creature that goes aloft and catches the wind
beneath its wings. As I thought of Pentecost 1996, Christ Community and a whole
new world before us, I thought of the butterfly, a symbol of resurrection, the
butterfly that soars with the wind beneath its wings, linking Easter and Pentecost
and launching us into the future with great faith, unafraid.
We celebrate Pentecost as one of the historical festival days of the Church and, if
you only had Luke, you would think that this thing just unwound, progressed
rather naturally and smoothly. There was Israel and there was Jesus. Death,
Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, Christian mission, world mission - all of it
very smooth, just moving along according to the plan and purpose of God.
Wrong! For one thing, if we had only John's Gospel, we'd celebrate Easter and
Ascension and Pentecost all on the same day. That's all John knows. He speaks
about it all in one package. But, Luke began to see that the early return of Jesus
just wasn't very early. Nothing was happening, as we have noted recently. That
Messiah who was crucified and raised and brought into the presence of God did
not return, and Luke began to see a historical perspective. So, in his Gospel and
in the Book of Acts, he gives us the story of Jesus, his death and his resurrection,
and the Gospel ends with Jesus being taken out of their sight. The Book of Acts
begins with Jesus moving into the clouds, and in Acts, Chapter 2, the day of
Pentecost. Well, the day of Pentecost was a feast day, a Jewish feast day fifty days
after Passover, fifty days, then, after our Easter. If we just take Luke's scheme, it
looks like it developed very naturally. The time of progression during that 40-day
period, Jesus verifying his resurrection, his living reality, leaving their midst, and
then the power of the Holy Spirit. That's Luke's nice, smooth, historical scheme.
© Grand Valley State University
�In the Spirit Butterflies are Free
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
But, it wasn't that easy, folks. First thing, note that the feast of Pentecost and the
ecstatic experience of those first followers of Jesus was a holy Jewish event. It
was about the God of Israel; it was the Spirit of the God of Israel - these were
Jewish followers of Jesus gathered on a Jewish festival day. Their ecstatic
explosion of power was totally within the context of the Jewish people.
Jesus never intended to found a world religion. The Christian Church was not in
the purview of Jesus. It was a call to Israel to be faithful to the God of Israel and
to renew itself according to the call of Jesus, but not a new movement, so to
speak, but rather, a renewal of that old movement. However, it soon became a
conflict situation. Initially there was great growth among Jewish people. There
was a Jewish Jesus Movement. However, when Jesus didn't come back, there
were Jews who were scratching their heads and saying, "You know, I wonder
whether we should leave all of our great traditions."
Then in 70 A.D. the Temple is destroyed and now there is the Jewish Jesus
Movement and there is the Rabbinic Jewish Movement - which movement will
emerge as the ongoing, continuing Jewish identity? Well, we know from John's
Gospel that the Rabbinic Jewish Movement came into the ascendency, so that to
say that Jesus was the Messiah was to be put out of the synagogue. And since
Jesus hadn't returned and, at the threat of being put out, many said, "Maybe we'd
better stay with what is familiar and what is our spiritual home."
But there was another factor operative. There was a Jew named Paul who had a
vision of the resurrected Christ and a sense of being called to bring the Gospel to
the nations, to the Gentiles. And Paul was powerfully persuasive and very
successful. One of the ironies of this whole development was that it was the very
success of Paul and the Gentile mission that dried up the movement of Jews to
Jesus, because, if the Jews had joined the Pauline church, they would have lost
their distinctive Jewishness. The threat in the 20th century, Jewish people tell us,
is assimilation through intermarriage. But there was an earlier threat in the first
century. If the Jews had followed the Jesus Movement according to the Pauline
conception, there would be no distinctive Judaism today, and would not our
world be diminished without that rich ingredient of the Jewish people? But, Paul
was successful and, therefore, there was a conflict situation in that early Church.
You've got to remember our Gospels were all written after the destruction of the
Temple in 70 A.D. Our Gospels arose in a conflict situation. They were pleading
with Jews to follow Jesus; they were presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the answer,
the Promised One, and they were showing Jesus was the Messiah from citing the
old scriptures, the Hebrew Scriptures. But, there was Paul out among the nations,
the Gentiles, and he was gaining a great many converts. And now you have a
situation where there are Jews who follow Jesus but want to remain distinctively
Jews. For example, James, the brother of Jesus - he was the leader of the
Jerusalem Church, and there are those who think that Luke wrote the Book of
Acts in order to play down the tension between James and Paul. Whoever said
© Grand Valley State University
�In the Spirit Butterflies are Free
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
the Christian Church was kind of a sunny, sweet, sentimental, sickly, kind, loving
bunch? It never has been. There has been conflict and tension, and it was sharp
between Paul and James. James was a Jew, an observant Jew. James followed
Jesus, believed he was the Messiah, and James believed that that message should
be taken to the whole world. But he wanted the whole world to be like he was - an
observant Jew following Jesus.
Paul, too, was an observant Jew. But, Paul had another idea. Paul did not want to
exclude Israel from the grace of God. There are all kinds of statements in Paul's
writings that indicate that it never entered his mind that God was done with
Israel. Paul didn't want to exclude Israel, but Paul wanted to include the Gentiles,
the nations. And he felt that it was his calling to bring the story of Jesus to the
nations. And in so doing, he had to decide - what do I do in Thessalonica or
Corinth or Ephesus or Rome when somebody says, "I believe Jesus is the
Messiah. I would like to become a member of the movement; I'd like to be
baptized." What does Paul do? Does he say to him, "Believe. Be baptized. The
grace of God embraces you"?
Or, does he say, "Believe. Be baptized. Be circumcised. Follow the food laws, the
whole Mosaic Law; be an observant Jew"?
Now, that's not exaggerating the situation, folks. Don't you see it? That's what
James would have said. He would have gone throughout all of the world telling
the story of Jesus, inviting all of the world to come to join the Jesus movement,
but James would have expected that the Gentile become a part of the whole
Jewish religious way.
Paul - and this is Paul's radicality (a lot of things I don't like about Paul, but I like
this about Paul) – Paul could see that the Jewish religious system, its ceremonies,
its rituals, its code of laws, its Torah, its way of life, he could see all of that as both
being from God and not being absolutely necessary. He could see all of that as
being provisional for a time, but he could also see that that was a human
container and that the Spirit of God could create new containers. And so, the
radicality of Paul, the brilliance of Paul was that Paul understood that God could
embrace people beyond Israel as they were without putting them into the
religious structures that had become Israel's way.
That was a brilliant insight. It caused conflict. It put him at odds with James. He
got into arguments in every congregation he founded. In the reading from
Corinthians, for example, he is defending his ministry. He said, "I don't need
letters of recommendation. You, my people, are my letter of recommendation."
(You see, he took a lesson from me; or maybe I learned that from him, I don't
know. Probably so.) He said, "Look, Corinth, people transformed by grace, people
with gifts of the Spirit, this lively, vital, charismatic community - I don't need a
letter of recommendation. You are my letter of recommendation. Because you are
a letter of Christ written by the Spirit on the fleshly table of the heart. Something
new has happened."
© Grand Valley State University
�In the Spirit Butterflies are Free
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
And then he realizes that there are those who are shaking their head, "No. No,
this is not sufficient. These Gentile believers of Jesus are not yet adequate. They
are not yet full-fledged people of God; they are not yet Jews, observant."
So, he said, "Look, you remember when Moses went up on the mountain and got
the Law, the Ten Commandments, and he came down and his face was all aglow?
He put a veil over his face so that people wouldn't see the glory fade away."
Now, it doesn't say that in Exodus. All it says is he put a veil over his face in order
that people might not be afraid of that shine, that glow. But, probably somewhere
along the way there was a Jewish Rabbi scholar who made some comment about
maybe Moses put his veil over his face so they wouldn't see when the face didn't
shine as much - that doesn't matter. It's pretty clear what's operating here. Paul
says Moses got the Law from God, the only God there is. He got the Law, the true
Law; he got the true Word. He came down from that mountain and his face was
shining because he had been in the presence of God who is Light. Then he says he
put the veil over his face because that shine was only skin-deep and it started to
fade, and Moses thought, "If they see the glory fade from my face, they'll think the
glory is fading from the Law," so he put a veil over.
And then Paul says, "You know, that reminds me. That's exactly what's
happening to my Jewish brothers and sisters today. They read their own
scripture, they read Moses and it's like they got a veil over their face. They read it
and they don't understand it. They read it and they don't believe it. They read it
and they can't see it. Hardened hearts, dull minds, veil over their face. Why don't
they read it? Why don't they see it? How can they be so dull? Moses was of God.
Moses' light was of God. That truth was truth, indeed, but it was partial, it was a
lesser splendor, it was a step on the way but it wasn't the absolute and the end of
all."
Paul says, "Don't you see that with Jesus, God has done a new thing? With Jesus
there is a brightness and a fullness and a splendor and a glory such as Moses
never, ever conceived of! Don't you see that Moses got light from God, reflected in
skin-deep glow, but we, beholding Jesus, not beholding Torah, we beholding
Jesus are transformed into Jesus' likeness from one degree of glory into another?
Don't you see that what we have in Jesus is so much more?"
Well, James said, "No. Not really."
James said, "Paul, if you have your way, there will no longer be a distinctive
Jewish tradition. If you have your way, there will be no ongoing, distinctive,
observant Jewish people. I agree with you about Jesus; I agree with you that God
was in Jesus, all of that. But, I don't agree with you that it is enough simply to be
graced by God through Jesus without all of Moses."
Paul said, "You're blind."
© Grand Valley State University
�In the Spirit Butterflies are Free
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
And James said, "You're radical."
Paul said, "What must I do?"
And James said, "You're out of here."
You see, who was right and who was wrong? Is it really an issue of right and
wrong? Is it necessary that I say that Paul was right and therefore God was done
with Israel and the Christian Church becomes the New Israel and supersedes
Israel? You know what that kind of thinking leads to? That has led to the
triumphalism of the Christian Church; it has led to anti-Semitism; it has led to
the Holocaust; it has led to pride that has divided the world and has made the
world a hostile place – that kind of spirit.
Why can't I just say, "Paul, you had a vision. Paul, through you the God of Israel
was brought to the nations. Bless you, Paul! Paul, you could see that human
religious structures, human religious rituals, humanly systematic formulated
doctrines are necessary and important and useful, but provisional and temporary
and never absolute."
Why can't I just say, "Paul, bless you for that freedom. Bless you for seeing that
new times demand new human containers," without having to say to you
somehow or other, "If you don't follow me, James, you're out. And James, James,
could you bless Paul? Could you be content to say, 'I'm the guardian and the
caretaker of a true and ancient and precious tradition. Bless you, Paul. Take its
wonder and glory and truth, and if you insist, its greater glory, and bring it to the
world. Because Paul, when you talk about Jesus, you're talking about the Jesus of
the God of Israel. Paul, when you talk about the Spirit, you're talking about the
Spirit of the God of Israel. Consequently, Paul, we are not competitors. We are in
the same business, for God's sake!'"
Paul - thank God he saw the relative, provisional, historically conditioned, partial
adequacy of every human structure, liturgy, doctrine, and he saw the Spirit of
God as always out ahead, blowing where it will, shattering forms, creating new
containers, and embracing an ever-greater circle of the children of God. The likes
of us who, as he says a bit later in the fourth chapter, have seen the light of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus. But the likes of James who saw the glory of God
in the Torah found his fulfillment in walking the way of Moses.
Well, I would have been on Paul's team. I think I like James better, but I would
have been on Paul's team. Paul's kind of radical; revolutionary people are not
always the kind you want to invite to dinner. It's a lot more comfortable with the
caretakers and the guardians. But some people are called to probe the frontiers,
to find the new containers and to praise God in ways not yet conceived of. Not a
new God. Not a novel idea. Continuity with the old, but tradition as the
instrument of continuity and change, because in our present human existence
there is no absolute, no absolute certainty.
© Grand Valley State University
�In the Spirit Butterflies are Free
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
Dear friends, there's risk, but there's also wonder - the wonder of a freedom, the
freedom of the Spirit of God. Paul says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom. Butterflies are free. And so are we.
© Grand Valley State University
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bcce1d4d3f4f23f0677da23a27431ba3.mp3
faaf7e46b097cf5569189cd1a9dea28c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kaufman Interfaith Institute
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1981-2014
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost
Series
I Do Believe
Scripture Text
II Corinthians 3:17
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KII-01_RA-0-19960526
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1996-05-26
Title
A name given to the resource
In the Holy Spirit: Butterflies Are Free
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
A related resource
Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on May 26, 1996 entitled "In the Holy Spirit: Butterflies Are Free", as part of the series "I Do Believe", on the occasion of Pentecost, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: II Corinthians 3:17.
Pentecost
Re-imagining the Faith
Resurrection
Spirit of God
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7575a27801010a5696a18b08f189edd1.mp3
3eab503fed2e7a35620a47b1370139ad
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f6d175d210373acb5329f37a4bef5f41
PDF Text
Text
Tradition: Instrument of Continuity and Change
From the series: Future Edge
Text: Isaiah 43:18-19; Luke 2:34
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Reformation Sunday, Pentecost XX, October 25, 1992
Transcription of the spoken sermon
Cease to dwell on days gone by and to brood over past history. Here and now I will do a new
thing; this moment it will break from the bud. Can you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:18-19
Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “This child is destined to be a sign which men
reject; and you too shall be pierced to the heart.” Luke 2:34
I have a book with me - I always have a book, but someone went out of church a
few weeks ago and said that the message had reminded them of this book. They
said, “The book is really about business and corporations but there is a
connection and I think you would be interested in it.” So I went out and got it as I
always do - I’m always willing to chase down a new book. Sort of like Paul said to
Timothy, “always learning and never arriving at the truth,” that’s me. But this
book is called Future Edge, written by Joel Arthur Barker. It would be
particularly good for some of you women and men who are involved in business
and corporations, who are out there trying to make a profit and turn a buck. It’s a
good book. It’s interesting. Its subtitle is Discovering New Paradigms For
Success. Paradigms is a word that was connected with my sermon, because I
often talk about paradigms, models, examples, ways of viewing things, setting up
structures to visualize that which is invisible, and to deal with that which is
intangible. Future Edge deals with paradigms for success.
Thomas Khune wrote a book, The Construction of Scientific Revolution, some
years ago, and that book chronicles the history of science. He showed that
scientists are not these wonderful, marvelous, open-minded people that simply
respond to every new piece of data, but, rather, scientists are just like
theologians. They resist the truth, they close their minds to new data until they
can’t do it any more and the data explodes in their faces. Then they design a new
paradigm and then we have a new revolution. Khune caused quite a stir when he
talked about the way science has gone bumping and jerking forward because the
data finally compel the scientist to admit that the old model doesn’t work any
more and that the new model can accommodate more data and move us forward.
© Grand Valley State University
�Tradition: Instrument for Continuity and Change
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
Hans Küng, the theologian, took that idea and applied it to the church. He
recognized that in the history of the church there have been several paradigms the ancient church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church,
the Roman Catholic Traditionalism, and then there was Protestant Orthodoxy.
Then there was Protestant Liberalism. The difference between the church and
scientific community was that, when the scientific data demand that there be
movement, the old scientific paradigm has to give way and a new paradigm
prevails. The church doesn’t have to do that. You just start another church. That’s
how it is done. So you have one paradigm in this particular group and this group
continues. And you have another paradigm and another group continues. You’ve
got all these paradigms and all these groups. You don’t let the data bother you.
When you are in the church you don’t let data bother you; it’s “don’t bother me
with the facts, my mind’s already made up.” So all these paradigms can live next
to each other in the church.
But it’s different in the business world. Those of you who are out in the business
world are not in the same endeavor as I am. For those of you who are out in the
business world, you are not in a non-profit endeavor as I am. Do you know how
you know whether you are in trouble? Very simple. The bottom line. You can’t
stay in business very long if you are not making a profit. It’s just that simple. And
that makes business people marvelously open-minded and flexible, and able to
move with the moving cultural themes, with the demands of the times, with the
spirit of the age. Business folk are always tuned in to today, always trying to be
ahead because, after all, what they are about is making a buck. In order to
prosper you have to be ahead of the game. You don’t have to do that in the
church. In fact, there are people who moved out of the business world and got
into the church or the public sector because in the church and the public sector,
(government service, education,) you don’t have to make a profit. You don’t have
to be productive or fruitful. If you are in government and it’s not working, you
just raise the taxes. In government you are lucky enough to be able to enforce the
tax, you see. So what you can do is you can be in debt. Future generations to the
third and fourth generations of those who will come to hate us. Four trillion
dollars or something. You can enforce the taxation and, as long as you can keep
the money coming in, the debt escalates but it functions - it still looks alive. Now
you can’t do that in business. That’s why in business people are always trying to
understand where things are moving and what is happening.
Someone else saw a paradigm and thought of me and gave me this seminar
announcement, called Paradigm Shifting. People resist change. New ideas most
often come from the fringe, the unexpected places. They are often rejected by the
best-intentioned decision makers. The models we live by every day may be the
very roadblocks that prevent our businesses from progressing and staying ahead
of competition. Our models filter information, often preventing us from seeing
opportunities vital to the creating or improving of products and services. What do
we do when our models become counterproductive and must be altered? In
© Grand Valley State University
�Tradition: Instrument for Continuity and Change
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
business you change because you’ve got to turn a profit or you are going to be out
of business.
In government you can add some more taxes. That’s what we have tried in
churches too. The Reformed Church in America is raising the assessment every
year because, when things aren’t working and people aren’t supporting
spontaneously and don’t really have that feeling that this is really where things
are, then you assess. What you don’t get voluntarily, you assess. The church gets
in trouble with assessing. The trouble is, it is not as successful as the government
at that because we can’t enforce that. I wish there were a way to enforce that, but
I don’t know - we just have to depend on your voluntary good will. It’s a terrible
way to live for me, but anyway - the church is somewhere between the
government and business. In business you change “by cracky.” I mean you are
not locked into anything forever if it’s not working. In the government you can
keep going for a long time in a wrong path as long as you’ve got the enforcement
to raise the revenue. The church is somewhere in between. We’ve got a special
problem too. We have our structures and our forms, our liturgical forms and our
doctrinal statements, etc. They are not simply something that arose at one time
because they worked well or they said it well; they are identified in our minds
with God and with truth. So that’s why in the church we perpetuate these forms
even when they no longer are really doing it. We kind of cover it over with a cloak
of piety, and, if it’s not working any more and people are dropping off or aren’t
supporting, we tend to say that people are hard hearted or unspiritual, or they are
not as good as they used to be, or they don’t care any more. That’s not true, of
course. But it makes us feel good if our numbers are falling off, etc. I’m talking
about the larger church now.
Denominations are really in trouble. The Reformed Church in America is in
trouble. We are trying desperately to find some way to shore up the structures.
We try a little harder. We run a little faster. Of course that doesn’t work. You just
get out of breath. But the Reformed Church in America is not unique. The
denominations generally in this country are in trouble. The reason they are in
trouble is that they are yesterday’s forms and structures that cannot do what
needs to be done today. But in the church we don’t change very easily. We are not
in business. If somehow we could find a way to change this whole religion
business into a profit-making enterprise, we would be more ready to change. But
here we don’t have to change because we can keep the thing going, appear to be
living yet, while it is dead - deader than a “dodo.”
Then suddenly one day we wake up and we call a conference, like the conference I
am going to. I am going to leave here this afternoon and go to Boston to Brandeis
University and there is going to be a conference of Protestants, Catholics and
Jews at the Center For Modern Jewish Studies, and the subject is
“Congregational Affiliation.” Now you know why you call a conference about
Congregational Affiliation? It’s because people aren’t affiliating any more. If you
are involved in the institution, you have a vested interest in the institution. You
© Grand Valley State University
�Tradition: Instrument for Continuity and Change
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
may even think the institution is valuable. You call a conference and you say,
“Let’s not talk theology - Protestants, Catholics and Jews - but let’s talk about
synagogues and churches and cathedrals and why people aren’t affiliating like
they once did.” We’ve got a problem, in other words. And so we are going to sit
down and talk about it, and you only do that when you have a sense of
foreboding, and you finally say, “Something isn’t working any more.”
Now you know, we probably ought to be the people that are the first in the whole
church to offer some word of counsel about openness to newness. We are the
heirs of the 16th century Reformation of the Church, and the one insight in the
16th century that is eternally valuable is that insight that nothing is spoken as
eternally true, or timeless. The Church in its forms and utterances, in its life, is
caught up in history and must always be moving with history and, therefore, it
needs constantly to be opening its eyes and cocking its ears to catch what the
Spirit is saying to the Church in order that the Church may be tomorrow what it
was yesterday.
Now you’ve probably heard a lot of Reformation Day sermons in which the big
point was that the Church rediscovered justification of faith through grace, or the
centrality of the word of God, or the priesthood of all believers. I mean, you’ve
probably already heard that in Protestant churches. You might have heard me
preach it on occasion, as though, after the 16th century we discovered that. That’s
ridiculous. That’s presumptuous.
The Catholic Church had grace. The Catholic Church had the Word. It had a lot of
other stuff too. But so do we. Eastern Orthodoxy had grace, and it had truth, and
it had Christ, and it had sacrament. The 16th century was not the birth of the
evangelical church in the sense of some pristine understanding of Christian truth
for the first time. The 16th century was a time when the forms shattered and at
least part of the Church recognized that what ought to always be true of the
Church is that the Church is being re-formed according to the word of God and
needs to be constantly being re-formed. That’s our central insight. That’s the
thing that has shaped us and characterizes us at our heart. So we ought to be the
Church that leads the pack in looking at the world and studying the word of God
and seeking to determine what God is calling the Church today and tomorrow.
Because we are an historical institution with a human dimension that is
constantly moving and, like I said, if it were a matter of raising a buck or two I
would take Joel Barker and we’d study “Paradigms for Success,” and we would
make all the adjustments necessary in order to get the job done.
But, we are not business. And we may not be able to live forever like the
government because we can’t just raise the taxes. Sometime or other we are going
to have to come face to face with that which is the very heart of our tradition: that
we never arrive, but we need constantly to be in the process of being reshaped
and reformed in order that we may be all that God would have us to be today and
tomorrow, as we have given witness to God’s grace in the past.
© Grand Valley State University
�Tradition: Instrument for Continuity and Change
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
This is our Reformation heritage. And I do believe that it is incumbent upon us,
and maybe Christ Community Church to be a catalyst in the larger church to get
the attention of the church to say, “We aren’t making it any more. We are losing
money.” You know, Stemple may survive. Gehan is in trouble. Something is going
to happen there. But in the church it takes a couple of hundred years to come to
that awareness. Now, why don’t we get smart and get honest, and be true to our
Reformation heritage and recognize that the church is in trouble because it is
perpetuating anachronistic structure and giving yesterday’s answers to today’s
questions?
Well, there are a couple of temptations that we face as human beings who would
be the people of God. There is the temptation to inordinate pride where we see
the world as a human project and see this past as something that is dependent
upon our ingenuity and our capacity, as though God was on vacation or had taken
a furlough, or was some kind of blasé observer and spectator of the human scene
and not engaged. There are those who would take the stance of aggressive
activism, take the bull by the horns, and consequently they become bulls in china
shops. As though anything that is going to happen in the Church today and
tomorrow is dependent upon human ingenuity and planning and decision
making. But there is an equally deadly peril on the other side. And that is kind of
a passive resignation, as though one simply has to wait for God to move; as
though perhaps, in 16th-century terminology, there is some kind of divine
predestination where the whole thing is set anyway and we just sort of twiddle
our thumbs and watch it happen without our involvement and our engagement,
and the engagement of our minds and of our hearts, and our commitment.
No. The Church of Jesus Christ, you and I, are called to be salt in the world and
light to the world, to be a catalyst agent to galvanize the people, the larger
populace, in the things that are really significant and eternally important. It is for
us to hang loosely, knowing our past, but open to the future. It is for us to know
our tradition in order that we may negotiate tomorrow. Tradition. The Christian
tradition. Our tradition is an instrument for continuity and change. Now to be
an instrument for continuity is obvious. For our tradition had shaped us and
made us what we are. We know who we are because of where we come from:
those who have shaped us - Reformed us - that stream that is issued in us today.
So it is obvious that tradition is an instrument of continuity. It gives us rootage. It
gives us a place to stand, a sense of identity. Terribly important. We must never
play fast and loose with it. We must know it well. We must be steeped in it.
But tradition also must be an instrument for change. I never understood that
until a year ago, when Krister Stendahl, a New Testament scholar, and David
Hartman, a rabbi, who was born in Brooklyn and now is in Jerusalem, had an all
day interfaith dialogue in Muskegon. It was a wonderful interfaith dialogue.
Krister Stendahl had just spent some time as a bishop of a Lutheran Church in
Stockholm. He had been exposed to contemporary Swedish society, and that was
so vivid in his experience. But he had relatives in Minnesota where all the
© Grand Valley State University
�Tradition: Instrument for Continuity and Change
Richard A. Rhem
Page 6
“Svedes,” except for Karl Lundgren lived. All the Swedes live in Minnesota.
(Laughter) He said, “If you would go to Minnesota and you visit the “Svedes” in
Minnesota, it’s like seeing them 100 years ago. He said I used to go visit my
grandparents. It’s wonderful because you have all these old customs and they still
survive, and they are passed along. It’s like a visit to yesterday.
But he said, “If you want to know Swedish tradition in its living form, you don’t
go to Minnesota. You go to Sweden.” I could have told him, you don’t have to tell
me about the Swedes, I can tell you about the Hollanders. (Laughter) I live in a
Dutch ghetto in Western Michigan, but I have lived four years in the Netherlands,
and I’ll tell you, you wouldn’t know that the one came out of the other. But that is
because an immigrant mentality moves out of its location and into another
location and it sets in its heels. It builds high walls. It has certain things that it is
fleeing, and certain things it wants to preserve, and so it becomes a very well set
tradition and it holds on - it is true of Hollanders and Poles and Germans and
Swedes, and whomever you want to call. It is a human characteristic. Tradition
needs to be living so that it can lead us into the future.
Stendahl says if you want an example of tradition as a museum piece, let me tell
you about the boa constrictor. Some of you were here years ago when John
Greller was our youth director. John Greller as youth director, in order to force
discipline, used to keep a boa constrictor on the premises. It had a wonderful
calming effect upon the children. (Laughter) A boa constrictor occasionally
wiggles out of its skin. And there’s the skin. So Stendahl says, a sociologist grabs
the skin and he examines the skin, the texture of the skin, he stuffs the skin, he
puts it in a glass case and he says, “There’s a snake.” Stendahl says, “No, it’s not a
snake. The snake has wriggled out of its skin and it’s off somewhere calming the
children another day. It’s making its new tradition over here.”
Now you go to Minnesota if you want to see a museum piece of Swedish tradition;
you go to Stockholm if you want to see living Swedish life. (Speaking in accent) “I
willa go to-a Minnesota.” I have heard so many people who went to the old
country – as I grew up as a Dutch kid, Dutch people who went to the Netherlands
– and came back shocked. They couldn’t get back to western Michigan fast
enough. That Godless place. And it isn’t even clean any more, they say. But that’s
where the Dutch tradition is. Not here. This is a museum piece. Sweden in
Minnesota is a museum piece.
Living tradition is always where the edge of the community is growing, where its
life is moving. Now the Christian Church in large measure has made tradition a
museum piece, and we have been in the business of guarding and preserving and
perpetuating rather than seeing ourselves as a catalyst in society to move into the
future, to help people learn fundamental trust in the God who created, the God of
our faithful past who is equal to the future and beckons us because God always
goes before us. God is always ahead of us while we are crouching in the bushes
trying to protect ourselves. Living tradition is our connection with our past and
© Grand Valley State University
�Tradition: Instrument for Continuity and Change
Richard A. Rhem
Page 7
the means by which we can move into the future unafraid - with confident trust in
the Eternal God. This Reformation Sunday, we acknowledge that the best insight
of the 16th century was that the Church needs constantly to have its ear cocked
and its eyes open to see where the Spirit of God is leading it - in the future.
This afternoon I will fly to Boston and I will go to Brandeis University to the
Center For Modern Jewish Studies and we will convene at 7:00 p.m. The young
lady who is organizing the conference called a week ago and she said, “You know,
we Jews aren’t too heavy on worship and prayer, and we never even thought
about it but we got to thinking that maybe we should have some prayer together.”
She said, “We are going to have a Catholic reflection on Tuesday morning, and a
Torah service on Monday morning, and would you lead the Protestant worship on
Sunday night?” I said, “Yes, I would.” And I thought, it’s Reformation Sunday, it’s
to be a Protestant worship, there ought to be a word of God. I said, “Do you have
any music?” She said, “No, we don’t have music.” I said, “Well, I’ll be forced to
preach.” (Much laughter) So I am going to preach.
You want to know what else? Do you have time to hear the sermon? Sure you
have. I am going to suggest to this group gathered to study the matter of
congregational affiliation – translation: the lack of affiliation – I am going to
suggest that what we really need to do on this Reformation Sunday is for us to
come from Geneva to go back to Rome. What might have happened if the
religious establishment of the 16th century had been open to listen to Martin
Luther, to hear what he had to say, to take seriously the critique rather than a
defensive posture and cast him out? What might have happened? There might
have been no Reformation, because it might not have been necessary.
I am going to ask what might have happened if the religious establishment in the
10th century, when the Western Church excommunicated the Eastern Church,
had been more concerned about the Gospel and true spirituality than playing
power politics. That’s all that the split in the Eastern and the Western Church was
about in the 10th century. It was pure, simple, raw power politics. It had nothing
to do with truth. I am going to raise the question - What might it be like today if,
when Mohammed had his visions in the 7th century and he went to the village 90
miles north of Mecca to plead with the Jewish community to hear him, what
might have happened if the Jewish community, the established religious group at
the time, had been open to hear his vision rather than cast him out? Out of which
casting out arose Islam. And then, I am going to raise the question as to what
might have happened if the 1st century Jew, Jesus the Nazarene, had been
received as a spokesman of a deep spirituality in the Hebrew tradition rather than
as one who was undercutting the tradition of the Hebrew people? Just think
about it. What if we could go back from Geneva to Rome, to Constantinople to
Mecca and to Jerusalem? I am going to suggest, very simply, this evening that we
dismantle it all - Judaism, Islam and Christianity. That we dismantle it all - and
start over again as children before one common God and Creator, Redeemer, who
calls us to Shalom.
© Grand Valley State University
�Tradition: Instrument for Continuity and Change
Richard A. Rhem
Well, it’s a simple proposal isn’t it? (Laughter)
© Grand Valley State University
Page 8
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Richard A. Rhem Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Religion
Interfaith worship
Sermons
Sound Recordings
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Rhem, Richard A.
Source
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
Contributor
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Language
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English
Type
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Sound
Text
Identifier
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KII-01
Coverage
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1981-2014
Format
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audio/mp3
text/pdf
Sound
A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds.
Event
Pentecost XX
Scripture Text
Isaiah 43:18-19, Luke 2:34
Location
The location of the interview
Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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KII-01_RA-0-19921025
Date
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1992-10-25
Title
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Future Edge - Tradition: Instrument of Continuity and Change
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
Relation
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
Language
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eng
Type
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Sound
Text
Format
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on October 25, 1992 entitled "Future Edge - Tradition: Instrument of Continuity and Change", on the occasion of Pentecost XX, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 43:18-19, Luke 2:34.
History of the Church
Re-imagining the Faith
Reformation
Tradition